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COFfl^IGHT DEPOSm 



COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR 
COOPERATING CHURCHES 



Community Programs 

for 

Cooperating Churches 

A Manual of Principles 
and Methods 

Edited by 

ROY B^ GUILD 



ASSOCIATION PRESS 

New York: 347 Madison Avenue 
1920 






COFVRIGHT, 1020, BY 

F&ED£RicK M. IIamris 



OCT -7 1S20 
0)C!.A576S12 



EDITORIAL PREFACE 

The churches of a community forming an organiza- 
tion to make cooperation effective constitute the sole 
authority as to form, personnel and name of organization 
as well as to program. Local autonomy is a fundamental 
principle. Each Council of Churches is a law unto itself. 
It has no organic relation with other councils. All fel- 
lowship between these councils whether local, state, or 
national is voluntary. 

This fact must be borne in mind constantly by the 
reader of this book. The Convention for which these 
chapters w^ere prepared and by which they were revised 
and approved had no authority. These recommendations 
are authoritative only so far as they command your at- 
tention and your service because of the common sense 
and Christian spirit evidenced in them. 

Tliis book is not a discussion of Christian cooperation 
on the part of churches. It is a report on present-day 
cooperation, a presentation of well-tested plans. Those 
who prepared the reports were charged not to tell why 
churches should cooperate, but how they do and can co- 
operate. 

The names of those who assisted in the preparation 
of the reports and the plan of preparation are given in the 
appendix on page 240. You should read these lists of 
names that you may know by whom this work has been 
done. The Commissions were composed of men and 
women engaged in all fields of religious service in all 
parts of the country in all the leading denominations. 

The reports were presented to the Church and Com- 



vi COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

munity Convention held in Cleveland June 1-3, 1920. 
This Convention was held under the joint auspices of the 
Commission on Councils of Churches of the Federal 
Council of Churches of Christ in America and the Asso- 
ciation of Executive Secretaries of Church Federations, 
of whom there were fifty at the time of the Convention. 

"Community Programs for Cooperating Churches" 
takes the place of the "Manual of Interchurch Work." As 
the title of the book implies these reports deal primarily 
with the programs to be carried out in cities. The prin- 
ciples set forth and the plans suggested are, however, 
applicable to small communities and counties and even 
to commonwealths. The following statement was ap- 
proved in the discussion of the report on Principles and 
Methods of Organization. The next great step in cO' 
operative church work will be the mobilizing of the state 
forces as has been done especially in Massachusetts and 
California. State autonomy and state financial support 
alone can secure success. 

"The reports presented and discussed at this Con- 
vention deal with the Church and the community. They 
have not attempted adequately to treat the Church and 
the commonwealth. 

"This fact implies no intention of ignoring the im- 
portance of state councils or federations of churches, 
which some in attendance consider the very keystone in 
the arch of interdenominational cooperation. It is recog- 
nized that organization of the churches upon state lines 
is necessary to enable them to influence the state, as the 
primary legislative and executive authority under our 
Federal Constitution; to secure the official endorsement 



EDITORIAL PREFACE vii 

of the denominations, which, for the most part, are or- 
ganized upon state lines ; and to cover the whole field of 
comity and cooperation, both territorially and prac- 
tically." 

There are now forty city councils and federations of 
churches. There will be steady development in the pro- 
grams that are adopted. A great deal of literature is be- 
ing prepared in the cities, copies of which can be secured 
by writing to the Commission on Councils of Churches, 
105 East 22nd Street, New York City, 

As local autonomy is so important an element in a 
Council of Churches, so local initiative is most im- 
portant. City after city has formulated plans and per- 
fected an organization because of the vision and the de- 
termination of some one clergyman or layman. The ad- 
vance will continue along this line. The Commission on 
Councils of Churches, and secretaries and officers of coun- 
cils or federations, will gladly assist in any way possible 
to promote cooperation of churches. Special literature 
can be secured to bring the subject to the attention of 
those whose interest is desired. 

It is not customary to print convention addresses in a 
volume of this character. The addresses delivered by 
Dr. Robert E. Speer and the Rev. M. Ashby Jones, D.D., 
are, however, such strong statements of the truths that 
. must permeate all Christian work that they are rightfully 
added. 

Special thanks are due to the members of the Com- 
missions and especially to the chairmen and secretaries 
who served with the editor as an Editorial Board. The 
attempt has not been made to adjust all the duplications 



viii COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

of suggestions or to run each report into a single mold. 
The program is not completed. This book only records 
a stage in the progress of true Christian fellowship and 
service. 

Roy B. Guild. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Editorial Preface, Roy B. Guild v 

Foreword, Fred B. Smith xi 

I. Principles and Methods of Organization 1 

II. Survey, Program, and Comity 40 

III. Evangelism 61 

IV. Social Service 87 

V. Religious Education 113 

VI. Missions 137 

\^II. International Justice and Goodwill 155 

VIII. Religious Publicity 176 

IX. Securing and Training Executive Secretaries... 193 

X. "The Church and Its New Cooperative Power," 

Dr. Robert E. Speer 213 

XI. "The Spiritual Basis for the Unity of the 

Churches," Rev. M. Ashby Jones, D.D 231 

Appendix > 240 



IX 



FOREWORD 

The Convention which assembled In Cleveland, June 
1st, 2nd, and 3rd, to discuss and revise the reports of the 
nine great Commissions, was so significant that it became 
a message itself to the Protestant churches of the world. 
The reports found in this volume speak for themselves. 
They are a testimony to the faithfulness and prophetic 
spirit of the members of each Commission. Yet they do 
not fully convey all that the book should contain. The 
characteristic qualities of the Convention itself are also 
of deep importance. 

In the first place, the Convention registered the pro- 
found belief that the cooperative spirit among the Chris- 
tian churches is steadily winning its way. There was no 
lack of recognition of the difficulties and of reactionary 
tendencies and of severe disappointments in this realm, 
but in complete knowledge of all of these, those who made 
up the Convention had their faces set firmly to the future 
filled with assurance that this principle was winning and 
would win. It was tremendously suggestive, as the three 
crowded days passed, that not one doubting voice was 
heard concerning the final triumph of the plan of united 
effort which was being expounded. 

In the second place the delegates seemed one in an in- 
tense belief that the new unit with which the Christian 
churches have to deal is the ''Community" rather than 
the individual or parish only. Many comments were 
heard reflecting how this new community life had 
found expression during the war and that it would insist 
upon finding similar outlet in years to be and that also 

xi 



xii COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

new alien voices are calling for the right to dominate this 
community life, many of them hostile to the very purpose 
and hope of the Christian Church. The unusual unity 
and persistence of the delegates may ver}^ largely be at- 
tributed to the fact that those attending confidently be- 
lieved that a practical, workable plan was being submitted 
which could meet this critical problem in every city and 
town if given an opportunity. 

In the third place, the Convention was moved power- 
fully under the oft spoken word that this plan of Chris- 
tian work would make possible an expression of church 
life vigorous enough to form a real rallying point in 
every community for those virile militant progressive 
types that sometimes grow restive under what seem to 
be at times the more passive forms of individual church 
life. Together with this, went the kindred thought that 
these local church councils or federations would make 
possible the full impact of all the churches upon the 
vexed issues of sound community morality. It is not too 
much to say that doubtless this possibility held more 
delegates unswervingly to the program than any other 
single item in the entire proceedings. 

In the fourth place, the Convention seemed to take to 
itself peculiar strength under the suggestion that this plan 
of cooperative community ser^'ice, in which all the Chris- 
tian churches could be combined upon obvious common 
duties, was the answer, in part at least, to many of the 
widely mooted prophesies of church unity and coordina- 
tion. 

Not so much was said directly upon this as it was im- 
plied in the report of each Commission and its discussion. 



FOREWORD xiii 

One delegate, well known for thought fulness and vision, 
perhaps more nearly spoke for all than any other, when 
he said, "Whatever the future may hold in adjustments 
and unifications for the churches, this Convention cer- 
tainly represents the next step to be taken." 

There were present high churchmen and low church- 
men; those of so-called conservative theology as well as 
liberal social workers and direct evangelists; educational 
leaders of the most advanced type and fervent believers 
in conversion of the immediate dynamic order. Yet there 
was not one discord but unanimous belief that all could 
unite for the common welfare of the Kingdom of God 
around this method of service. This fact of unity made 
the Convention one of significant power. Altogether the 
Convention, the reports, and the discussion were a testi- 
mony of belief in and fidelity to the Christian Church 
as the hope of a troubled, confused human life in a world 
of uncertainty. 

Fred B. Smith. 



CHAPTER I 

PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF 
ORGANIZATION 

The report of the subcommisslon on Principles and 
Methods of Organization submitted to the conference in 
October, 1917, at Pittsburgh, was pubHshed along with 
other reports in the Manual of Interchurch Work. This 
report reviewed the basic principles of church federa- 
tion and showed how these principles were applied to 
local organization. It also discussed possible names for 
the organization and outlined the preliminary steps and 
the basic structure of a local church council or federa- 
tion. Attention was also given to the relations of inter- 
church organizations to other religious and philanthropic 
bodies and practical suggestions were added on the fi- 
nancing of interchurch work. The report closed with a 
copy of a proposed constitution which has since been 
simplified, improved, and issued in separate pamphlet 
form. The report of this subcommission summarized 
the best thinking up to that time with reference to this 
increasingly vital problem in American church life. 

I. Need for Reconsideration of the Principles and 
Methods of Organization of Cooperative Work 

1. The report of the subcommission submitted in 
1917 has been widely used as the basis of the organiza- 
tion of many church federations, and the country has 
seen some notable experiments in interchurch work. 
It has appeared to the leaders of the churches that the 

1 



2 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

time has come when the experience of these years should 
be studied and such principles as have proved valuable 
in practical experience should be formulated and sub- 
jected to the tests of discussion. The common suc- 
cessful experiences of many federations should now be 
made available to all the country and the mistakes and 
wrong tendencies should be pointed out, so that they 
may be avoided in the future promotion of interchurch 
work. Furthermore, the leaders of the churches desire 
earnestly to keep the practical and scientific point o! 
view in the development of their work, which in itself 
would lead to the continual checking up of the prin- 
ciples and methods of organization in the light of ex- 
perience. 

2. Many new forms of interchurch cooperation have 
developed since the Pittsburgh Conference. Some of 
these have been within the local, county, state, and na- 
tional councils or federations of churches, and some 
have grown up independently and have sought points 
of contact and cooperation with the churches. 

3. One of the real assets of the war in American 
life was the development of a new community spirit, 
which led the people of the town and country and the 
cities to pull together for the accomplishment of the 
great tasks of selective service, finance, production, con- 
servation, and of awakening and maintaining the nation's 
morale. This new sense of community responsibility 
has had pronounced eflfect upon the American people. 
It has taught the waste and inefficiency of single-handed 
effort for the achievement of mighty enterprises. 
It has produced a feeling of distrust, if not of disgust, 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 3 

for all organizations and institutions that tend to be 
divisive in American community life. It has placed a 
new test of loyalty upon organizations and institutions 
which demands that the non-essential and more or less 
selfish interests be laid aside for cooperation for 
the common good. While this spirit has been greatly 
shaken since the close of the war by reaction against 
the tensity of war days and more especially by relapse 
from the high unselfish idealism on the basis of which 
the war was fought to selfish and sometimes sordid 
seeking for personal, economic, or national self-interest 
— ^while these and other causes have checked somewhat 
this new consciousness of community life, it still re- 
mains as a new factor to be dealt with in any work that 
involves a large proportion of the people in the com- 
munity. 

4. There is also a growing feeling throughout Amer- 
ica that the organized work of the Protestant churches 
must be greatly simplified. The complexity has arisen 
largely from the conflict of community responsibility, 
which makes certain demands upon all the organized 
forces of religion, with the activities of the churches 
and denominations themselves as they try to adapt and 
enlarge their own programs to meet what they feel are 
their responsibilities for the new day. Thus at the very 
time when the nation has an unparalleled example of 
cooperation and of disinterested participation in com- 
munity enterprises on the part of the churches, we find 
individual churches and denominations with a stronger 
consciousness of their own inherent worth, with greatly 
enlarged programs for strengthening their own organi- 



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PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 5 

zations and agencies. Nothing more is intended here 
than to point out this situation as a new factor to be 
dealt with in cooperative work among the churches. 
There is, without doubt, an increasing number of peo- 
ple both within and without the churches who are seek- 
ing relief from the confusion and the waste of multiple 
organizations and agencies within the churches and de- 
nominations and interdenominational bodies. 



II. Fundamental Principles in Cooperative Work 

1. The Churches in Simultaneous ' Common 
Action 

Whenever there are two or more churches in a com- 
munity, there at once appear certain purposes and certain 
activities common to all or to a majority of the local 
churches, which may be more advantageously and more 
effectively realized if carried on in cooperation or sim- 
ultaneously. The arrangement for such cooperation re- 
quires some kind of interchurch committee or coun- 
cil. These activities may be as simple as the prepara- 
tion for a union Sunday school picnic or as complex 
as the conduct of a highly organized every member can- 
vass, house-to-house visitation, or evangelistic campaign. 
A-11 that this principle involves is a plan by which the 
churches can carry on simultaneously and in full har- 
mony the activities which the churches are all caring for 
separately, and which they would carry on each in its 
own way were it not for the very decided advantage of 
getting action at one and the same time on the same ob- 
jective by all the churches in the community. Any such 



6 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

committee called together, representing all the churches 
for the purpose of carrying out these common tasks, is 
a real though simple council of churches. Such an ar- 
rangement is the most elemental form of interchurch 
work. Where there is only a small number of churches 
involved, such a council will not need the services of a 
paid executive secretary. 

2. Cooperative and United Church Action 

In developing the spiritual resources of a community, 
in maintaining the highest moral ideals, and in estab- 
lishing justice and righteousness on the earth, certain 
forces need to be released and certain attacks made 
against centralized and organized evil which require 
more or less highly specialized machinery in order to 
express in thought and action the will of the churches. 
These activities, being general and community wide, are 
beyond the effective control of any one church or de- 
nomination. Corrupt morals and domestic relations 
courts, unbridled and segregated vice, corruption at the 
city hall, and cooperation in constructive programs with 
civic or other social agencies for the common good are 
all problems with which no one church can deal eflPec- 
tively. Furthermore, simultaneous action by individual 
denominations will not produce the necessary moral and 
spiritual momentum and force to meet such needs. This 
is largely due to the fact that separate denominations, 
however effectually organized, can find few or no points 
of contact with such problems. Such contacts must be 
made by a single highly organized and specialized agency. 
In order to be effective from the churches* point of view, 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 7 

this agency must speak for and in behalf of all of the 
churches as constituent units. 

It is through such interchurch activity that the 
churches become what would be technically known as a 
community or social force. There is a difference between 
the force and influence of the churches acting independ- 
ently and separately in a community and the churches 
of a community becoming an effective social force. In 
other words, the churches here have the same oppor- 
tunity to develop within the field of moral and spiritual 
values an agency that parallels the chambers of com- 
merce in the fields of industry, business, and finance, or 
the allied councils of social and benevolent agencies now 
being developed so rapidly in many of the larger towns 
and cities. Such an organization has force : — 

a. When in its organization and management there is 
direct and accredited representation by all the constitu- 
ent bodies, 

b. When it expresses in thought and action the will 
of the entire group. 

The only effective democratic principle is the devel- 
opment of common thought and common ideals. There 
is a fallacy in majority action as well as in mob rule. 
Centralized agencies representing large, self-conscious, 
and forceful units can only gain the confidence of the 
community and really exercise effective social control 
when they actually speak the common mind and act for 
the entire group. 

As society becomes increasingly complex and as the 
forces of evil become more highly organized and cen- 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 9 

tralized, the churches, as the guarantors of the world's 
moral and spiritual values, must learn how to express 
themselves in thought and action in a comparable manner. 

III. The Basis of Representation 

Interchurch work is possible and necessary in any 
community where there are two or more churches. The 
unit may be the churches of the open country centering 
about a particular trading center, or it may easily be 
extended into the township, the county, several towns 
and cities, the great metropolitan areas, and the state. 
Quoting from the Pittsburgh Conference Report, ''The 
word 'church' is used in many senses. Ecclesiastically 
it may mean a local congregation, or the whole of a com- 
munion. Polities differ; some making the congregation, 
some the whole communion, the source of ecclesiastical 
authority. But all recognize that such authority, either 
original or derived, and to some degree, is vested in both 
local and national bodies and in the judicatories between 
them. Hence there is no practical difficulty. A federa- 
tion of churches may be formed alike in a community, 
a state, or the nation, in each case consisting of repre- 
sentatives of the churches in the corresponding sense. 
Only as the churches themselves as churches consult 
and cooperate officially through accredited delegates for 
all accepted common tasks is interchurch work possible 
in any community." This is the simple and logical de- 
duction from the two principles mentioned above. 

1. Even for the smallest and simplest interchurch 
activities, the council or committee which is to act for 



10 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

all the churches should be composed of representatives 
officially elected by the local churches. The same prin- 
ciple applied to the larger and more complex communi- 
ties only increases the desirability of this democratic 
representation. Experience has shown that adequate 
representation of all the interests in a local church can- 
not be secured through less than three persons, the pas- 
tor, a layman, and a laywoman. Such representation 
would not make too large a body for the discussion and 
determination of common action for all the town and 
country communities and small cities, as well as in the 
more or less self-conscious communities which go to make 
up the larger cities and metropolitan centers. In other 
words, the principle may apply for country trading cen- 
ters where three churches are involved, a town of 1,8CX) 
people with five churches, a city of 25,000 people with 
forty churches, or the Bronx as a part of New York 
City, Dorchester as a part of Greater Boston, south 
Chicago of Chicago, Corondolet in St. Louis, or Armour- 
dale in Kansas City, Kansas. It may also be applied to 
the interchurch council in an industrial center like the 
Calumet region in northwest Indiana or the zinc and 
lead mining region centering about Joplin, Missouri, 
where an economic interest rather than any political or 
geographical division, determines the grouping. 

There are distinct limitations in those church federa- 
tions where the representation of the churches is by the 
pastors only, or by the pastors and laymen. The women, 
whose activities form such a large part of church life 
and whose various interests have been organized into 
larger denominational and interdenominational groups. 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 11 

should now be regarded as normal factors in all inter- 
church organization. 

2. While the pastor, a layman, and a laywoman may 
officially represent the local congregation in an inter- 
church council, it will be found quite necessary in plan- 
ning for simultaneous activities of the different depart- 
ments of the Church's work in a community to bring 
to the subcommittees of the interchurch council official 
representatives of other organizations in the local church. 
Just as each local church has a final, authoritative gov- 
erning body, which in a sense has control over all the 
other organizations and activities of the church, so the 
Council of Churches composed of these three delegates 
from each local church forms the group which has final 
and ultimate control over interchurch activities. The 
local church, however, has in it the young people's society, 
the Sunday school. Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, chil- 
dren's and boys* and girls' missionary organizations, 
women's missionary societies, men's clubs, classes, and 
brotherhoods, social service committees, and the like. 
The desirability of bringing these various local church 
organizations, especially those that are common to all 
the churches, into cooperative and simultaneous action 
in the community is above debate. The Sunday school 
associations, the young people's unions, the federated 
men's clubs, the interdenominational women's mission- 
ary unions, are all democratically controlled organiza- 
tions of these various interests in the churches. It will 
at once be seen that the problem here is to correlate and 
coordinate these various organizations representing 
phases of interchurch work. In order to do this the 



12 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 



ECCLESIASTICAL UNITS OF CONTROL 

As illustrated in the case of a city of 23,000, where eleven dif- 
ferent Protestant denominations are represented 
by one or more churches. 




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PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 13 

basic interchurch organization made up of the pastor, 
a layman, and a laywoman may create commissions or 
departments as they are needed in which these local 
church interests shall have direct representation. For 
instance, a young people's department could be created 
which could be composed of the presidents or other 
official representatives of the local young people's socie- 
ties of the various churches, and the same could be 
done with the Sunday school organizations, the women's 
societies, and others. In case such departments are 
formed, then it will become necessary to admit the chair- 
men of these different departments into the central or 
executive committee, in order that they may have direct 
representation in the interchurch council. 

3. Local churches, however, have ecclesiastical asso- 
ciations to which they are primarily and authoritatively 
related. These denominational groupings such as dis- 
trict, presbytery, convention, synod, and classis, are the 
organizations to which the churches in the very nature 
of the case owe their first allegiance. In view of the 
fact that the denominations are not yet fully coordinated 
in their national policies, no very great attempt has been 
made to coordinate these different ecclesiastical units ex- 
cept in a very superficial way. The effect of such lack 
of coordination is often felt in the community, where 
the churches of several denominations desire to formu- 
late some plan of common action, when it is discovered 
that one or more of the local churches have agreed to 
a plan in their ecclesiastical group which does not har- 
monize with what the same churches would desire to 
do in cooperation with other churches in the community. 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS IS 

The possibility of this conflict may be seen from the 
accompanying map, which shows the boundaries of 
the ecclesiastical organizations to which the local 
churches of a city of 25,000 people are voluntarily or 
authoritatively related. The real difficulty may be illus- 
trated in the planning of a community-wide evangelistic 
campaign, which to be effective in the community must 
have the whole-hearted and united support of all the 
agencies. Upon investigation it may be found, for ex- 
ample, that a Presbyterian minister has recently been to 
his presbytery, which is made up of the Presbyterian 
churches of a widely scattered area having no relation 
to the normal social and business life of the people, and 
in the presbytery has agreed to an evangelistic program 
which may be very different from that desired by the 
churches in the community. It is at this point that inter- 
church work has found its greatest obstacles. Experi- 
ence of successful federations of churches has shown 
that sometimes the difficulty may be obviated by seeking 
the approval of these denominational groups for inter- 
church proposals and in the larger cities and metropoli- 
tan centers by constituting the federation itself as the 
official cooperating agency among the denominational 
units. Some of our most successful interchurch coun- 
cils are constituted by the official bodies and official 
representatives of the various denominational units, as 
the presbytery, district, etc., in a given community. This 
is only possible, of course, where there is a sufficient 
number of churches to make these denominational group- 
ings more or less coterminous with the city, county, or 
metropolitan area. The advantage of this kind of 
interchurch organization is that, being constituted by the 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 17 

ecclesiastical authority and having direct representation 
from it, the interchurch council actually speaks officially 
as the representative of all the denominations. 

In such an organization a local church of a given de- 
nomination is represented in the interchurch council 
through the official action of its own ecclesiastical body. 
This is an indirect representation, and is effective only as 
long as the local church has sufficient knowledge of and 
interest in the interchurch activities to be in sympathy 
and to cooperate when called upon. If denominational 
cooperation has been secured by majority action, then 
all the local churches represented in the minority con- 
stitute a marginal field of disinterestedness and lack of 
sympathy for interchurch cooperation. 

An examination of the forms of organization and the 
basis of representation of different church federations 
throughout the United States shows these two tendencies 
in a more or less pronounced way. One may be called 
the congregational basis of representation and the other 
the ecclesiastical basis. After discussing rather fully the 
merits and demerits of these two methods of interchurch 
control, it is safe to presume that future successful inter- 
church work in the counties, cities, and metropolitan 
centers will be through a Council of Churches which 
utilizes both principles and secures direct representation 
from all the churches, and at the same time official 
approval of the denominational groups and probably also 
official representation from them. 

4. In the larger cities and metropolitan areas, as be- 
tween the congregational control which may provide a 
rather unwieldy body and the ecclesiastical control which 



18 COMMUNITY PROGR.\MS FOR CHURCHES 

may not be as democratic as it should be, the way 
out may be through the organization of community in- 
terchurch councils in the various more or less well-de- 
fined communities that make up the larger city or metro- 
politan areas as well as the rural counties. For example, 
through a recent piece of interchurch activity', the dozen 
churches of a well-defined section of the city of Chicago 
became conscious of their common interests and the need 
of closer cooperation and also of united action on certain 
matters. They formed a community church council con- 
sisting of the pastor, a layman, and a laywoman from 
each of the twelve churches. These thiiiy-six people were 
to all intents and purposes a Council of Churches for this 
particular community. These churches and this commun- 
ity, however, are also related both to the ecclesiastical 
groups and to all the other churches in this great city. 
These community councils could be duplicated in from fif- 
teen to twenty different communities and cover all the 
territory of the city. The community referred to is on 
the north side and has many problems to deal with in 
which a similar community on the south side would 
have no interest. At the same time when action is needed 
for the city as a whole, it would be necessary for them 
to join with all the others in cit}--wide cooperative action. 
These fifteen or twenty community church councils in 
this great cit>' may all be organized for their local com- 
munity work and then be represented by their chairman 
or other officially elected delegate or delegates in a cen- 
tral interchurch council, something after the manner in 
which the Central Labor Council is constituted. To this 
central Council of Churches, organized in this fashion, 
there may also be added the official representatives of the 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 19 

ecclesiastical groups in the city, thus giving the desired 
democratic as well as ecclesiastical representation in the 
Council of Churches. This plan is represented in the 
accompanying diagram. In such a Council of Churches 
the local churches would find their denominational plans 
harmonized through the different denominational repre- 
sentatives appointed by presbytery, classis, synod, dis- 
trict, etc. They would also be democratically represented 
through their own delegates from the local community 
church councils, 

IV. Territorial Units of Organization. 

From the above discussion of the bases of organiza- 
tion, it will be seen that the territorial unit of organization 
may be community, city, county, and state. Since this 
report deals mostly with the Church in its community re- 
lationships, there needs to be only a passing reference to 
the units of organization above the community. 

Experience is showing that the county is the basic 
unit. Already many phases of religious and social work 
are organized on county lines. A county unit will make 
possible the employment of an executive secretary who 
will facilitate efficient and prompt activities of the 
churches for community effort. 

Metropolitan councils with few exceptions may also 
be organized on the county basis. 

The State Council of Churches may ordinarily be com- 
posed of direct representatives from the counties or from 
the various denominational units or from both. Its 
function would include those state-wide human interests 



20 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

and relationships on which the churches should have 
moral and spiritual concern. 

Every encouragement should be given the denomina- 
tional bodies to readjust their territorial units of organi- 
zation so as to conform to county and state lines. Where 
this is not practicable, they should be urged to adjust 
their machinery so as to forward cooperation with other 
church and social agencies on county lines. 

V. The Functions of Local Councils of Churches 

The following is an effort to set forth an outline of a 
complete organization on a basis of past experience. 
A new organization should not undertake it all at once. 
jMkchinery should be built only as fast as required by 
definite tasks. 

1. SUR\TEY AS THE BaSIS OF PROGRAM 

The only reasonable and fundamental basis for de- 
tennining the functions both of the local churches in 
their parishes and for the interchurch council is a sci- 
entific and thorough-going survey of moral and spiritual 
needs. This principle, widely acknowledged in commerce 
and industry as well as in education and social recon- 
struction, is now approaching general recognition by 
churches and interchurch councils. It needs no further 
support here. It is the method and scope of a surv^ey 
from the Church's point of view that may need further 
discussion. Certainly, the most far-reaching and most 
scientific church survey yet inaugurated in any country 
was conducted by the Interchurch World ^lovement in 
its Home Mission and Religious Education Survey De- 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 21 

partments. These departments made a study of the social, 
moral, and spiritual conditions in the United States, not 
only in the home mission centers, but in all communities 
and among all the churches and religious agencies. It 
conducted this survey, not from the point of view of a 
national organization, but rather from that of the com- 
munity and its needs and the religious forces which work 
in the community. It was not a picture survey, but was de- 
signed primarily for the purpose of providing the basis 
for an adequate approach of the churches to their im- 
mediate and community problems. 

The scope, content, and method of this survey have 
already been described fully in documents largely avail- 
able to all. Let it suffice to point out here the following : 

2. Scope and Content of the Survey 

An attempt is made to study in both urban and rural 
life all the factors necessary for determining the pro- 
gram of the churches, separately and in cooperative 
groups. For example, in the City Division, there are the 
following schedules: 

a. For the city as a whole. 

This schedule reveals those needs of the entire 
city which cannot be met by any one church or 
group of churches. 

b. For the different districts or communities in the 

city. 
By mapping those sections of the larger cities 
which have a life more or less in common, and 
where the churches are face to face with similar 
problems, we discover those social units whose 



22 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

needs must be met by a group of churches. This 
schedule reveals the common social service to be 
rendered by the churches. Problems of housing, 
health, recreation, vice, crime, and delinquency, 
are studied in relation to the churches. 

c. For each individual church. 

Through this schedule, the growth and present 
strength of the church are appraised. The effi- 
ciency of its organization, its property and equip- 
ment, its staff, and its service to the community 
are investigated. For the first time, an attempt 
is made to measure the influence of each indi- 
vidual church on the moral and spiritual welfare 
of the people of the community. 
The needs of each church for property, equip- 
ment, and staff, over a period of five years, are 
set down, after all the local and community fac- 
tors have been taken into account. 

d. For a population census. 

This schedule has a twofold purpose: 

(1) To secure data for immediate use by the 
churches in an ingathering of members and 
special evangelistic efforts. 

(2) To determine the population factors and the 
tendencies toward any changes in population 
which would affect the program of the 
churches. 

In the Town and Country Division, a similar scheme 
is provided for each county, with the following schedules : 

a. For the count v as a whole. 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 23 

b. For each normal community or trading center in 
the county. 

c. For each individual church. 

d. For a population census. 

Schedules with certain necessary variations have been 
provided for Negro churches and communities, distinctly 
new American communities, small mining and other in- 
dustrial communities, the Mex-Americans, the Orientals, 
and the American Indians. Special studies are also be- 
ing made of the migrant groups, such as the lumberjacks, 
the migratory harvest workers, and the laborers in the 
small fruit and canning industries. 

By taking the county as the unit in organizing the 
town and country survey, it is possible — 

(1) To cover all the territory. 

(2) To locate all the unchurched areas and groups. 

(3) To indicate all the normal community centers. 

(4) To associate for religious purposes the people who 
have a common social, industrial, and civic life. 

By making the survey denominationally It would 
hardly be possible to achieve these ends, for : 

(1) There are areas of the county where no denom- 
ination is at work. 

(2) There are groups of people unreached by any 
church. 

(3) The denominational approach sees community 
need from its own angle only. 

Where no local Council of Churches had been organ- 



24 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

ized and where it has been necessary' to call together a 
survey council assisted by the pastor and the laymen and 
laywomen from each church in the territory to be sur- 
veyed, it is now possible to build upon the survey a per- 
manent organization, w-ith tasks definitely assigned grow- 
ing out of the survey, thus giving at the ver^^ start a 
solid foundation to the new organization. There is no 
firmer basis for a new organization than the necessity 
of meeting a definite need. The survey discovers this 
need. 

3. Functions Growing Out of a Survey 

Regardless of the size of any community, with the sim- 
ple organization just mentioned a survey similar to that 
of the Interchurch World Movement may yield the fol- 
lowing definite departments of work for which the local 
churches may be coordinated in a Council of Churches, 
according to the principles stated in the first part of this 
report. 

a. An Inspirational, Evangelistic, or Spiritual Re- 
sources Function. 

This function includes the following up of the house- 
hold survey, except that which has to do with the children 
and youth. Sonie of the methods possible are personal 
work among the unchurched, calling in the homes of 
strangers and among those having no church connection, 
and such other methods as may be necessary to reach the 
most men and women in the community with a personal 
religious message. 

There may also be included the work of promoting 
family worship, prayer groups in homes and churches, 



I 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 25 

attendance upon public worship, the distribution of liter- 
ature and religious periodicals, and many other similar 
methods for elevating the inspirational and evangelistic 
side of personal religion. 

b. A Religious Education Function. 

Representatives of the Sunday schools and other edu- 
cational organizations of local churches would follow up 
the survey and seek to enlist the children and boys and 
girls who are not enrolled in any Sunday school or re- 
ceiving any other religious instruction. They would also 
be responsible for the promotion of any week-day or 
community school of religion. They would also have 
fhe opportunity for carrying out a complete program of 
life service and would educate the community in the 
principles of stewardship. 

c. The Service Function. 

The results of the industrial, social, educational, and 
civic surveys of the community would be followed up 
under this function. It would open to the churches the 
social service needed in the community. The missionary 
activities of various groups would be included. It could 
be organized in as simple or as far-reaching a manner 
as desired. 

The remaining reports to be presented to this Confer- 
ence will discuss possible cooperative work along these 
and other lines, suggesting the other departments for 
which there may be a need. 

The above have been mentioned only to show how 
interchurch functions may arise out of the survey and 
thus be fairly well established from the very start. This 



2(i COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

is a most necessary principle to be adhered to in at- 
tempting to start interchurch work in any community. 
These same simple activities could be applied to the 
community church councils of any large city or metro- 
politan area, in which case they would be related to sim- 
ilar departments in the central church council. 

In the larger cities and metropolitan areas, it is in- 
creasingly the conviction of interchurch leaders that the 
safest principle to follow in building up a strong inter- 
church organization is to establish and gradually expand 
the organization as it may be required to meet clearly 
recognized needs. There is no time for establishing an 
interohurch organization merely for the sake of having 
one, and it is difficult to persuade church leaders to sup- 
port an organization for the purpose of undertaking ex- 
traneous pieces of work, 

VI. Suggested Organization of Cooperative Church 

Work 

In the counties, cities, and metropolitan areas, on the 
basis just suggested the work of the Council of Churches 
may be separated into two main divisions. For conven- 
ience the first group may be called "departments" and the 
second "commissions." The distinction here made is 
that a department coordinates for the city as a whole the 
work of definite organizations of the local churches, as 
the Sunday school, young people's society, women's mis- 
sionary society, and others; while the name commission 
is given to the group that undertakes to represent the 
churches as a whole in dealing with city-wide social, 
civic, or moral problems. 




DEPARTMENT AND COMMISSION ORGANIZATION 



28 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 
1. Departments 

With these tentative definitions the following and sim- 
ilar departments may be organized : 

a. Department of Ministerial Association, 

This would be to all intents and purposes what is now 
usually known as **the ministers' association" or "min- 
isters' meeting," which in many cities is not now tied up 
directly with the interchurch organization. By having a 
definite department for it, with its own officers and with 
the right to determine its own program, it could be car- 
ried on without the necessary loss of energy and lack 
of connection that now sometimes exist, 

b. Department of Churcli Schools. 

This would coordinate the Sunday school and other 
religious educational activities of the Church in city- 
wide plans, the principles and methods of which will be 
further discussed by the commission on this subject. 

Our Commission is of the firm conviction that as 
rapidly as possible the present work of the interdenom- 
inational religious educational organizations should be 
coordinated, if not organically related to the interchurch 
council in any given community. There may be diffi- 
culties of personal adjustments and of long standing 
prejudices in the community in the way of such an ar- 
rangement. None of them, however, seem to be as im- 
portant as the necessity of coordinating completely the 
cooperative plans in religious education with the general 
policies and agencies of cooperative work. 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 29 

c. Young People's Department. 

This department would coordinate the various plans 
of the local and city-wide organizations of the different 
young people's societies. In many communities there 
have already been attempts to relate the work of the 
societies in cooperative movements. It is hoped that as 
soon as possible, all such efforts will become definitely 
coordinated in the Council of Churches. 

Increasingly there will be opportunities in many cities 
for the complete coordination of the work among the 
young people in the various churches with the other 
forms of religious education, as represented in the Sun- 
day schools and other organizations of the local church. 

d. Women s Department. 

This department would represent the activities of 
women in the local churches and would have assigned to 
it all the interests which women have in the moral and 
religious life of the community, as represented in their 
local church organizations. Care should be taken that 
these activities, as far as possible, are representative of 
all the women in the local church. 

Certain federations, after some years of experience 
with a women's department, have come to feel that 
women should take their share of the responsibility in 
the whole work of the federation, and that they should 
be distributed on all the committees, with the possibility 
of election to the chairmanship of the standing com- 
mittees or of the federation. 

Other departments may be added, provided there are 
definite organizations in the local church that desire to 



30 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

coordinate their programs for any simultaneous or united 
action. 

2. Commissions 

The number of commissions should not be increased 
beyond those that are actually necessary to carry out the 
interchurch program. Experience has shown that the 
following may be effectively used: 

a. Commission on Survey, Program, and Comity, 

The report of this Commission will be found on page 
40. It follows immediately this chapter on Organization, 
as many of these suggestions w^ill eventually be carried 
out by this Commission, the others being of special sig- 
nificance for the Executive Committee of the Council of 
Churches. 

To this group would be committed the responsibility 
for organizing and carrying forward the surveys of the 
community. It would deal especially with the results 
of these surveys as they affect the locating and relocating 
of churches and the needs of the various churches for 
new buildings, equipment, etc., especially when mission- 
ary aid is required. 

This Commission would take over all the work now 
assigned to comity commissions and would establish the 
principle that a survey is never completed. It would be 
disastrous if the idea got abroad that a survey could be 
made, completed, and tabulated and results announced on 
the basis of which a five-year or a ten-year program for 
the churches could be outlined. A survey is out of date 
the minute it is supposed to be completed. Intelligent 
programizing will demand continued investigation of the 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 31 

needs, especially since our populations, as well as our 
social and economic conditions, are rapidly and continu- 
ously changing. 

When special surveys are to be made in the fields of 
religious education, social service, industries, vice and 
crime situations, etc., it is suggested that the prime re- 
sponsibility for such surveys rest in the commissions con- 
cerned and that they should be correlated with the work 
undertaken by the Commission on Survey, Program, and 
Comity. 

b. Commission on Evangelism or Spiritual Resources. 

The suggested activities of this Commission are de- 
scribed on page 64 in the report of the Commission on 
Evangelisni. These suggestions include the goal and 
methods of evangelism in city and state federations and 
the organization and functions of the Commission on 
Evangelism, with special reference to conferences of pas- 
tors, inspirational meetings, evangelistic literature, and 
evangelism through ministers' messages and the laymen 
of the church. The report also summarizes the work of 
evangelism through the Pocket Testament League by 
means of a program of religious education applied to 
crowds in the streets, parks, and industrial fields. There 
is a discussion of evangelism through community service 
with definite suggestions for the use of the Lenten season. 

c. Commission on Social Service, 

The work which may be undertaken by this Commission 
is fully described on page 88 in the report of the Com- 
mission on Social Service. After defining social service 
and giving the fundamental objectives from the stand- 



32 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

point of the churches, the program is outlined to include 
the conduct of a campaign of education, a social survey, 
the establishment of contacts with social groups in com- 
munities, cooperation and community betterment, and a 
brief resume of the Church's share in social reconstruc- 
tion. There follows also a definite outline of the organi- 
zation through which the social service program of the 
Council of Churches functions. 

d. Commission on Religious Education, 

A stimulating and suggestive method which may be 
followed by this Commission in a church federation is 
fully described on page 125 in the report of the Commis- 
sion on Religious Education. It will be recognized that 
the suggestions given are those growing out of experi- 
ence and are therefore true to the situation in religious 
education today throughout the country. Church feder- 
ations will do well to make similar studies of their own 
situations before outlining any religious education pro- 
gram. 

e. Commission on Missions. 

In the plan of organization of a church federation pro- 
posed in this discussion, missionary education is conceived 
as a formal and essential part of religious education. 
The report of the Commission on Missions, found on 
page 137, will naturally be referred to the Commission 
on Religious Education and its recommendations will be 
carried out through that Commission. 

f. Commission on International Justice and Goodwill. 
The task of the Commission on International Justice 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 33 

and Goodwill and a full discussion of the membership, 
activities, methods, and relationships of the Commission, 
are found on page 155 in the report of this Commission. 
Church federations will give these suggestions most care- 
ful and prayerful consideration as being most essential 
for the present and coming days if the Church is to have 
its rightful place in international affairs. 

g. Commission on Pvihlicity. 

The principles which a federation may safely follow 
in its publicity work in a community, are fully outlined 
on page 188 in the report of the Commission on Religious 
Publicity. There are als© valuable practical suggestions 
which any Council of Churches may well follow. 

In addition to the above Commissions for which recom- 
mendations are made in these reports it is suggested that 
there should be a 

h. Commission on Home Missions and Church Exten- 
sion, 

This Commission is intended to offer an opportunity 
to the city, district, presbytery, etc., home mission and 
church extension agencies to coordinate their work. It 
will include such functions as normally belong to these 
societies in the various communities. It will be noted 
that the report of the Commission on Missions on page 
143 has taken for its scope more largely the functions of 
missionary education, promotion, and the arousing of 
interest in the world-wide causes of the Church, which, 
it is suggested, should be included in the Commission on 
Religious Education. 



34 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

3. The Coordination of Community Organizations 
Whose Work Affects the Work of the Churches 

The churches are facing a serious situation due to the 
number of community organizations caUing for the allegi- 
ance of the men and the women, the boys and the girls, 
and also for the money of the church members. There 
is today not only a conflict between the Church and these 
organizations in the effort to secure the loyalty and serv- 
ice of those who constitute the force and field of the 
Church, but there is a conflict between the various or- 
ganizations themselves. There is no question about the 
good intentions of the leaders of these organizations. 
But this very fact complicates the situation. Each wishes 
to be true to the Church, yet each strives to secure the 
success of his own organization in the service rendered. 
Confusion arises largely from the desire of organiza- 
tions to serve those who are served by and are serving 
the Church. This is particularly noticeable in work for 
boys and girls and in the promotion of religious educa- 
tion. 

No one can assume that a particular one of these or- 
ganizations should have the right of way as against the 
others. Each is doing a good work. Each is sincerely 
and indeed sacrificially trying to supply a real need. No 
one organization is authorized to put up the old sign, 
"Keep Off the Premises." The chief need is such a co- 
ordination of these forces as will conserve what is good 
and helpful in each. 

As all these allied agencies make their appeal to the 
Church and depend upon it for their inspiration and their 
resources, should not the Executive Committee of the 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 35 

church federation take the initiative in bringing repre- 
sentatives of these organizations together, so that their 
programs may be coordinated and harmony and co- 
operation may be secured where now there is confusion 
and oftentimes intense rivalry? 

4. Conducting the Work 

a. Executive Committee 

A democratic ecclesiastical representation basis for in- 
terchurch work in the large cities and metropolitan areas 
would create a Council of Churches too large to give the 
best results for the administration of policies. The 
council, therefore, would elect an Executive Committee 
which would be responsible for the supervision of the 
work of the Council and would be the legal body in case 
the Council is incorporated. 

b. Executive Secretary. 

Experience has proved that a salaried executive secre- 
tary, on full time, is needed in all communities where the 
work of administration is larger than that which any 
pastor or layman is willing to undertake on a voluntary 
basis. 

The work of the executive secretary of an organization 
as unique as a Council of Churches is becoming in the 
United States a distinct profession. The chief qualifi- 
cations are the ability to organize groups for cooperative 
action and sufficient initiative and imagination to present 
items of business and problems for discussion and new 
forms of cooperative service. 

One essential characteristic is that the executive sec- 
retary should be willing to efface himself and magnify 



?>6 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

continually the cooperating groups, and, beyond them, 
the churches themselves. 

The executive secretary can speak only for an or- 
ganization that is actually backing him. His official life 
to be vital and significant must have the unanimous sup- 
port of his constituency, a support that arises not merely 
out of a paper organization, but one that represents at 
least on all the major issues united thought, purpose, 
and willingness to stand by any position taken. Such an 
attitude on the part of an executive secretary is an essen- 
tial to the building up of interchurch work on a sound 
and lasting basis. 

c. Administrative and Finance Committee, 
Immediately upon employing an executive secretary 
and opening an office, expense is incurred. The adminis- 
tration of the office should be in the hands of an Admin- 
istrative Committee, a subcommittee of the Executive 
Committee. The members of this group assume the 
burden of the financing of the organization and are the 
immediate counselors of the executive secretary. 

5. Financing Interchurch Work 

As to the financing of the Council of Churches, there 
are three prevailing methods. 

a. The budget worked out by the Finance Committee 
and approved by the Executive Committee and council 
is apportioned among the cooperating churches on the 
basis of their relative numerical and financial strength 
and degree of interest. These churches are then asked 
to include this item in their own regular budgets of cur- 
rent expenses and to collect the money from the mem- 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 2>7 

bers and forward it to the treasurer of the interchurch 
council as a regular obligation. 

b. The budget is apportioned to the cooperating de- 
nominations in proportion to their relative numerical 
and financial strength with an official acceptance of the 
budget by the denominational groups, such as the pres- 
bytery, the classis, district associations, etc. This is 
the plan followed by the Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Detroit 
Councils of Churches and the Massachusetts State Federa- 
tion of Churches. These denominational units, by their 
action, commit all their churches to the support of the 
interchurch council. These denominational representa- 
tives then apportion the budget to their churches and 
collect and pay the denominational quotas to the inter- 
church council. 

c. Funds for the support of the interchurch council 
are solicited directly from laymen and layvvomen who 
are interested in the promotion of interchurch work. 
This method is used sometimes to supplement the moneys 
raised by the two methods just mentioned. 

It does not seem possible for the Commission to pass 
judgment as to which of these three is the best method 
for the financing of interchurch work. 

6. Names of Local Interchurch Groups 

It seems quite apparent that the hour has amved when 
some more uniform name ought to be applied to these 
local cooperative groupings throughout the country. 
There exists at the present time a good deal of confusion. 
In one city it may be called a "Churchmen's Federation" ; 
in another it may be called "The Christian Men's Feder- 



38 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

ation" ; in another it is called "The Federated Churches" ; 
in another, "The Christian Council of Churches" ; and in 
still another it is called "The Council of Churches." 

While probably nothing vital is involved in these vari- 
ances of names, yet if some standard name could be gen- 
erally used, it would very much simplify the understand- 
ing of these organizations with various religious and 
other bodies throughout the country. It is therefore 
recommended that organizations hereafter to be formed 
use the term "COUNCIL OF CHURCHES," designating 
thereby the central representative body of the cooperating 
churches. 

VII. Interracial Cooperation 

With reference to the participation of foreign language 
groups and the Negro churches in the work of the inter- 
church council, a study of prevailing methods over a 
wide range of communities reveals the following facts : 

1. There are some interchurch councils where these 
groups do not have any organic or other relationship 
to the interchurch council. 

2. There are instances where an organization is set 
up among the Negro churches which parallels the inter- 
church council among the white churches. Relations are 
established between the two, and cooperative work under- 
taken whenever such work touches the interests of both 
races. 

3. The recognition of all racial groups in the com- 
munity on an equal basis leads to a type of organization 
that includes all the foreign-speaking churches and the 
Negro churches on an equal basis in the interchurch 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 39 

council. It may safely be said that this is the only prin- 
ciple on which the churches of all nationalities and races 
^vill be able to come to their fullest efficiency and to render 
their largest contribution to the moral and spiritual life 
of the community. 

The Commission recommends that, as far as possible, 
the normal association and cooperation of the churches 
of all nationalities and races be regarded as an ideal 
toward which we should bring the organization and 
work of the interchurch councils. 



CHAPTER II 

SURVEY, PROGRAM, AND COMITY 

The Comity Commission is the heart of a church feder- 
ation. The work of comity is the most distinctive co- 
operative feature in the federation program. This Com- 
mission has in its keeping the key to the success or failure 
of the community federation. Its purpose is to bring into 
manifestation the essential oneness of the churches, and 
as far as possible, to coordinate their activities. 

I. General Principles 

In discussing the work of the Comity Commission 
there are certain general principles which must be kept 
in mind. 

1. Mutual good will must underlie all comity agree- 
ments and arrangements. 

The great purpose of the federation is to promote the 
spirit of fellowship. If arrangements effected by the 
Comity Commission lead to hard feeling and strife, the 
purpose of the federation is defeated. 

2. Regard should be had to the principle of self- 
determination in the local communities. 

While it may often be necessary that suggestion be 
made by those outside of the community group, yet it is 
very important that this be done with a great deal of 
tact and in such a manner as to encourage the spirit 
of self-determination. 

40 



-N 



Locating Churches 

for 
Largest Ser>7fce 

OBJECTIVES 

I. An adequate religious ministry 

for every section of the area 

covered oy the Federation. 

2.i:linDination of waste effort 

3.Development of special types 



4.Plannin^ parish responsibility 

5.C6operative program in neighbor- 
hood communities 

6. Coordination of ail welfare 
organization with church work 



« I • t 



of the commynity 



42 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

3. In all comity arrangements equities of every nature 
should be carefully observed. 

Values, whether in the terms of property, or of per- 
sons, or of statistics, or of influence, or of traditions, or 
even of reputation, should be preserved, and, if trans- 
ferred from one party to another, should have due ac- 
knowledgment and if possible fair compensation. A plan 
of "Reciprocal Exchanges" was first formulated in 1905 
in the State of Maine. It has been adopted in other 
states, and has received the approval of the Home Mis- 
sions Council. This plan suggests certain practical 
methods of preserving important equities when inter- 
changes are made among denominations. 

4. When a certain area is assigned to any church or 
organization by agreement of the other churches, that 
church or organization must furnish adequate ministries 
to that community in order to justify its sole occupancy 
of the field. 

Whenever a church finds itself unable to give an ade- 
quate service to the community, it should relinquish the 
field to others or seek such reenforcement as will enable 
it fully to do the work. 

These principles apply both to the city and the rural 
community. 

II. Organization 

1. Spirit and Purpose 

The Comity Commission in a federation should be posi- 
tive and constructive in its aims and in the spirit with 
which it undertakes its work. Very often this department 
has been looked upon as a sort of arbitration body, whose 



SURVEY, PROGRAM, AND COMITY 43 

province It is to sit in the place of judgment and hear 
such cases of overlapping or interference as may be 
brought up for its adjudication. Of course it will have 
something to do in the way of adjusting differences and 
harmonizing conflicting claims. And possibly members 
of this Commission will at times think that they have a 
fairly big task to perform if they succeed in keeping down 
conflicts and in maintaining a fairly friendly and cordial 
relationship among cooperating denominations. 

But this work of adjustment and harmonization will 
be better promoted by a broad and constructive policy. 
Most of the difficulties of adjustment will be prevented 
by a careful planning of the religious work for the 
entire area covered by the federation and by such a 
division of fields as is based upon a careful study of the 
needs of each neighborhood community. 

2. Personnel 

The department in a federation that has such an im- 
portant service to perform should be constituted with 
great care. All the denominations cooperating in the 
federation should be represented in the Comity Commis- 
sion by their strongest and sanest men. Its members 
should not only be men of well-balanced judgment, but 
still more they should be men of vision and spiritual pas- 
sion. The possibilities in the field of denominational 
cooperation are very many and very great, and it would 
be most unfortunate if the members of the Comity Com- 
mission should not have the vision to discover these 
possibilities or the zeal to undertake their realization. 

More specifically, the membership of the Comity 



44 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

Commission should be composed of both ministers and 
laymen. 

We suggest that the membership might wisely be drawn 
from these three sources: 

a. Denominational representatives, consisting of one 
minister and two or more members from each cooperat- 
ing denomination. 

(1) These may represent city missionary or church 
extension societies. 

(2) Denominational judicatories. 

(3) Local denominational churches or groups of 
denominational churches. 

b. Officially nominated representatives of cooperating 
religious bodies such as the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. 
C. A., etc. 

c. Indi\'iduals chosen for special reasons, such as : 

(1) Connection with city planning commission, so- 
cial service agencies, etc. 

(2) Expert knowledge concerning particular lines 
of work or weight of influence among the 
churches or in the wider community. 

Note: The denominationally chosen representatives 
should be so numerous as to have the preponderant vote 
in the Commission. 

3. Subcommittees 

Generally it will be found of great advantage if the 
Commission on Comity organizes within itself so as to 
decentralize the work and to give opportunity for a m^ore 
particular study of certain phases of it Some comity 



SURVEY, PROGRAM, AND COMITY 45 

commissions have territorial subcommittees, such as, 
Inner-City Committee, Middle-City Committee, Outer- 
City Committee, Surburban Committee. For a federa- 
tion covering large sections of rural territory a number 
of similar subcommittees would readily be suggested. 
This division of the work among a number of subcom- 
mittees gives better opportunity for an intensive study 
of each section of city or country, and for working out 
policies and formulating plans. These subcommittees 
may also be in position to serve as referees in connection 
with protested locations. 

4. Meetings 

The Commission on Comity should meet not less often 
than once a month. Some Commissions meet regularly 
every two weeks. Special meetings may be convened at 
the call of the chairman. 

An agenda should be carefully prepared for each meet- 
ing, and adhered to closely. Extended meetings that do 
not have a definite plan of work before them discourage 
attendance on the part of busy men, 

5. Interdenominational Agreements 

It is one of the most important duties of the Comity 
Commission to secure an agreement as specific as possi- 
ble to which the cooperating denominations will give 
hearty consent. 

The form which is in use in the city of St. Louis is : 

"That the Church agrees hereby to take 

counsel of the Committee on Comity of the Church Fed- 
eration of St. Louis before relocation of established work 
and location of new work are decided upon. 

**That this action shall be binding upon said church 



46 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

when ten of the participating denominations shall have 
subscribed to it." 

The agreement used by the Pittsburgh Council of 
Churches, formally adopted by all the judicatories of 
the denominations cooperating, is : 

"In the matter of new work within the territory of the 
Council, whether among foreign speaking peoples, ex- 
ceptional populations such as Jews, Negroes, etc., whether 
the work proposed be Sabbath school, missionary or 
other forms of organized Christian activity, it shall be 
the policy of the Pittsburgh Council of the Churches of 
Christ that any affiliated denomination proposing to open 
such new work shall report its intention, accompanied 
by facts of location, need, character of work to be done, 
etc., to the Commission on Comity for review and counsel 
before taking decisive steps in the matter. In case of 
objection by any other affiliated denominations, the ques- 
tion shall be reported to the Council for adjustment. 
The findings of the Council in all such cases shall be 
made a matter of record and officially reported to all of 
the judicatories of the denominations affiliated with the 
Council." 

Other cities have excellent comity agreements among 
the cooperating denominations. We will not take space 
here to give further samples. The great importance of 
having such agreements covering the relocation of 
churches, the establishment of new work, the inaugura- 
tion of work among aliens or special classes in the city, 
should be very strongly emphasized. 

III. Lines of Work 

The lines of work that must come under the consider- 
ation of the Commission on Survey, Program, and Comity 
are the following: 



SURVEY, PROGRAM, AND COMITY 47 

1. The Survey 

First among the tasks to which this Commission in 
close cooperation with other departments must address 
itself is that of making a careful and detailed survey 
of all the area covered by tlie federation. It is obvious 
that all the other work and planning of the Comity Com- 
mission must depend upon the effectiveness of this 
survey. It is true that something can be done in the 
way of adjusting differences or in arbitration of disputes 
without this intensive study of the entire field. But if 
the Comity Commission proposes to do a positive and 
constructive work, it must first of all attend to the mat- 
ter of survey. 

This survey of the fields must not only be careful and 
detailed, but it is very important that it should be con- 
tinuous. Our cities are rapidly changing. Certain ele- 
ments of the population are always shifting. The com- 
plexion and atmosphere of a given locality are likely to 
be very much changed within the space of one or two 
years. So it becomes very important that the church 
federation of a city should maintain a continuously 
operating survey and visitation department. 

Provision should be made for a periodical, preferably 
an annual, house-to-house visitation of the entire city. 
This annual repetition would standardize the work and 
educate church workers, so as to make it possible to visit 
every home during a visitation week in the spring or fall 
of each year. By means of duplicate cards, information 
regarding families can be exchanged throughout the city 
among all churches. 

Chapter I deals more at length with this subject. It 



48 COMMUNITY PROGRAAiS FOR CHURCHES 

should be studied with great care as it is practically a 
part of this report. 

2. Types of Work 

When a district has been carefully surveyed, and the 
facts thus gathered have been classified and studied, it 
becomes the very important duty of the Comity Commis- 
sion to advise as to the particular type of work which 
that district requires, whether mission work, or 'a highly 
socialized church, or an institutional church, or an in- 
stitution of the community-house type, or a religious 
center with highly developed educational features, or a 
federated church which shall be the center for all the 
religious and cultural and recreational activities of that 
district The Comity Commission should be thoroughly 
informed as to all these types of work, should know their 
weak and their strong points, should know the kinds of 
population each is best adapted to serve. There should 
be nobody in all the area covered by the Federation nearly 
so well qualified to advise concerning types of Christian 
work as the Comity Commission, because of its personnel 
and its purpose. 

It may be admitted that in existing federations the 
Comity Commission is often weak at this point. But we 
urge that a thorough study of the various types of Chris- 
tian work and the conditions under which each is most 
effective is absolutely fundamental. And the Comity 
Commission of any federation is failing to function in a 
maximum way if it is not in position to give expert advice 
as to the particular kind of Christian activity which will 
give largest results for the Kingdom of God in a given 
community. 



SURVEY, PROGRAM, AND COMITY 49 

3. Formulation of Plans 

It is at this point that the Comity Commission has a 
grave responsibihty and an inspiring opportunity. The 
formulation of a comprehensive plan of religious activity 
for the whole area covered by the federation is something 
for lack of which Christian w^ork in every great city has 
suffered much, and something that is fascinating in the 
great possibilities which it suggests. 

This should be regarded as the supreme work of the 
Comity Commission. To that work it should address 
itself as soon as the surveys can be made and the types 
of work carefully considered. 

It is not enough, however, that a general plan be made 
covering all the territory. Plans should be worked out 
for each section or neighborhood community. This Com- 
mission should be in position to give expert suggestion 
and advice as to community programs that may promote 
social welfare and religious growth. 

4. Buildings and Equipment 

The functions of the Commission on Comity have been 
so enlarged that it must be the department of a church 
federation which is in position to advise concerning build- 
ings and equipment, as well as programs and types of 
work. Often the success of the work in a locality has 
been made practically impossible by the utter lack of 
judgment displayed in choosing the style of building 
and the forms of physical equipment. 

It is suggested that the Commission on Survey, Pro- 
gram, and Comity secure from a number of denomina- 
tional headquarters the plans for various types of church 



50 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

buildings and make them available to local churches that 
are contemplating the erection of new structures. 

In cities and industrial communities data should be se- 
cured concerning approximate plant and equipment neces- 
sary for such centers of work as the following: 

(a) Downtown business district; (b) downtown tene- 
ment district ; (c) polyglot district ; (d) foreign-speaking 
colony; (e) factory district; (f) apartment house dis- 
trict; (g) suburban district; (h) residential district. 

5. Allocation of Fields 

Experience has proved that one of the best methods 
for carrying out a program for neglected communities 
is for some one denomination to assume full responsibility 
and charge of a local field and that there be secured to it 
freedom from competition by other churches as long as 
it is doing the work in an adequate way. As a rule, this 
acceptance of responsibility should be made by the denom- 
ination which is in the best position to carry forward the 
work in a large and effective way. 

In this connection the question should be raised whether 
it is ever desirable that the federation should give finan- 
cial assistance to the denomination occupying a field, 
when that denomination is unable to do the work in as 
large a way as the community needs require. It has 
often occurred that the church which should logically 
assume responsibility for the work in a given field is not 
strong enough in material resources to do the work as 
it ought to be done. A good many problems suggest 
themselves and a good many difficulties arise when fed- 
eration assistance of this kind is proposed. It may be 
questioned, however, whether there may not be circum- 



SURVEY, PROGRAM, AND COMITY 51 

stances so exceptional as to justify the other denomina- 
tions in a federation in taxing themselves so as to make 
the work of a sister denomination in a certain field 
highly effective. 

It should be added that in not a few cases where a 
denomination has accepted sole responsibility for a field 
and is carrying forward an effective work under comity 
agreement, members of other d "^nominations have given 
fraternal cooperation to the church that is doing the 
work in their own neighborhood, and this under the 
sanction of their own ecclesiastical authorities. 

6. Location of Churches 

It is recognized that much depends upon the proper 
location of a church building. A good many failures are 
to be attributed in some measure, at least, to the fact 
that the building has not been well placed in reference 
to the needs of the neighborhood. The Comity Commis- 
sion of the federation, with its wider outlook and with 
its familiarity with the problems of community work, 
should be able to give wise advice as to the proper loca- 
tion of buildings. Two general principles may be sug- 
gested as to the number and location of churches in a 
city. 

a. Population limit. Accumulating experience proves 
the weakness of the small church and the effectiveness 
of the larger church, making possible organization with 
division of labor. In the larger church, the age, sex, 
and grade groups are large enough to secure enthusiasm 
in detail work. For the above reasons, the principle of 
limitation of the number of churches to the total popula- 
tion is held to be important. In the rural fields the mini- 



52 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

mum ratio suggested is one to one thousand; in cities 
one to two thousand. 

b. Territorial limit. It is important also to consider 
the geographical relation of churches. The Cleveland 
Federation has a rule that churches should not be nearer 
than a third of a mile from each other. In other cities, 
however, the controlling principle more frequently oper- 
ating relates to the customary lines of communication and 
avenues of travel. The churches that serve different 
neighborhoods may be upon main thoroughfares near 
each other yet accessible to their own respective com- 
munities. Locations on the side streets and in regions 
not easily accessible are seldom advisable. 

No hard and fast rule can be laid down as to exact 
distance. The principle to be observed is that churches 
should be far enough apart to afford each a fair field 
without overlapping and at the same time should be easily 
accessible each to its own distinct constituency. 

In rural fields the use of the automobile, the condition 
of roads, and the lay of the land whether mountainous 
or otherwise affect the question of distance. In general, 
however, it is deemed desirable that in the open country 
a single parish should have a radius of five miles in 
every direction from the church which cultivates it. 

IV. Objectives 

We wish to suggest some objectives which the Com- 
mission on Comity may well keep in view. Some of 
these may be fairly immediate in their possibility of 
realization, others more remote. We suggest that all are 
worthy of careful thought. 



SURVEY. PROGRAM, AND COMITY . 53 

1. An Adequate Religious Ministry, Deeply Spirit- 
ual AND Thoroughly Evangelical, for Every Sec- 
tion OF THE Area Covered by the Federation 

This is the great purpose of all the work. This supreme 
aim should never be lost from view. All the study of 
methods and plans is of value only as it helps to bring 
the warm living Gospel of Jesus Christ to all the people 
of all neighborhood-communities over which the federa- 
tion has supervision. 

2. The Elimination of Waste Effort through 
Overlapping and Duplication 

The Comity Commission must always keep in mind 
that it is the agent of a federation whose purpose is so 
to coordinate the work of the different denominations 
that lost motion shall be reduced to the minimum and a 
wise economy shall be practiced in expending the re- 
sources of the churches. 

Much can be done in the way of merging existing 
churches and mission stations, in the way of allocating 
fields, in the way of relocating existing organizations, and 
in the way of promoting federated effort, so as to elim- 
inate much of the waste and make the resources of the 
churches in men and money reach much farther and 
accomplish very much larger results. 

3. Development of Special Types of Work 

There is need for some "creative imagination" in the 
Comity Commission of a church federation. It must be 
acknowledged that some of our orthodox and regulation 
forms of church effort do not function very effectively 
in some communities. Where the old methods are not 



54 COMMUNITY PROGRAI^IS FOR CHURCHES 

getting the results, there should come some strong and 
urgent advice to use some of the newer methods. 

It has been suggested that working class neighbor- 
hoods particularly call for the development of some pow^- 
erful, highly socialized churches. This is commended 
to the Comity Commission for serious consideration. 
As a rule, our churches are not getting the results in 
those working class neighborhoods which must be se- 
cured if dangerous influences among v/orking people are 
to be counteracted, and the Church performs the ministry 
it owes to them. 

This reference to working class neighborhoods is by 
way of illustration. The Comity Commission should 
work out new ideas or so modify old ones as to make 
the cooperative effort in every community effective. 

4. Planning Parish Responsibility 

The trend of thought is more and more toward the 
development of the parish idea for our Protestant 
churches. Two types of parish arrangement may be 
suggested : 

a. Self-chosen parishes. 

Every church should be encouraged to define for itself 
a parish of its own choice, related naturally to its present 
and prospective constituency. These self -chosen parishes 
may be overlapping, and there are sections of territory 
that may not be included in any of them. 

b. Responsibility parishes. 

A more advanced stage of interchurch cooperation 
makes possible the division of the entire community, rural 



SURVEY, PROGRAM, AND COMITY 55 

or city, Into responsibility parishes, one or more for each 
local church. Responsibility parishes do not overlap. 
They are assigned more or less arbitrarily by mutual 
agreement for mutual study. They are necessarily pro- 
portionate to the size, Avorking force, and community 
interest of the local churches. Each church should agree 
to make an intensive visitation of its responsibility par- 
ishes periodically, in the name of the church federation, 
with the purpose of discovering every home without 
church relations, and every individual unrelated to the 
churches and religious organizations. Such cases should 
be reported through the federation to the proper organiza- 
tions and to interested pastors. 

This plan of dividing and assigning responsibility with- 
in the community is a fruitful field for investigation and 
experiment. 

5. The Challenges That Come through the Sur- 

veys 

The conclusions and generalizations that have come 
out of the interchurch surveys afford a fruitful field of 
investigation to the Comity Commissions of the federa- 
tions. 

6. The Complete Christianization of the Com- 
munity 

The ultimate end of church federation work in the 
field of comity is such a coordination of Protestant Chris- 
tian forces as will make the total life of the city Christian, 
leaving no unchurched group and no unserved territory, 
wasting neither means nor energy, avoiding needless 
overlapping of church and denominational effort. 



56 COMMUNITY PROGIL\MS FOR CHURCHES 

In a working body like the Commission on Comity, 
fellowship grows and association and cooperation become 
the most ordinan- and commonplace things. Out of this, 
a community consciousness among church leaders in the 
cit>' should be developed. As this commtmit}- conscious- 
ness comes to commanding strength it will lead to tlie 
formation of a cit}--wide program for Protestantism, 
statesman-like, comprehensive, inclusive of all interests, 
serving all groups, and looking with confidence and hope- 
fulness into the future. Thus it will be possible for the 
Protestant churches of a cit}', without the sacrifice of 
denominational identity, to present a united front, making 
common cause against a common foe, cheering each other 
on toward the realization of this great objective, a Chris- 
t'mnised commufiity. In this way the federation, through 
its Comit}- Commission becom.es a "liaison" unit con- 
necting flank with flank, holding the line intact, mutuaHz- 
ing all interests, and insuring a great victor}-. 

V. Comity in the Rural Community 

In any state which has a well-organized and effective 
federation with a Commission and a defined policy of 
comitv, the community' federation whether urban or rural 
should have such a general understanding and such con- 
sultation through its own Comity Commission with the 
Comity Commission of the state as occasions require so 
as to insure full harmony of action and mutual support. 

The State Federation is composed of the denomina- 
tional bodies which have churches operating within the 
state. Its support comes from denominational treasuries. 

The first principles set forth by a federation in a state 



SURVEY, PROGRAM, AND COMITY 57 

were framed by the Interdenominational Commission of 
Maine in 1891. The same principles have been carried 
out in Vermont with some modifications in expression 
and implications. They are as follows : 

a. In the small community in Vermont we regard one 
strong Protestant Church, with adequate ministerial lead- 
ership, as the ideal condition. 

b. To attain this ideal throughout the state we agree, 
as denominational leaders and secretaries, to consult to- 
gether concerning particular communities, on the basis 
of an equitable exchange of fields. 

c. The following may be considered as possible ways 
of carrying out the ideal set forth in the preceding para- 
graph: (1) Absolute withdrawal of one denomination. 
(2) Temporary maintenance of the ecclesiastical organi- 
zation of the denomination withdrawing, until entire 
withdrawal can be wisely effected. (3) Federation of 
the existing churches without the withdrawal of either 
denomination. Federation to be understood as including : 
(a) Arrangements for one set of services and other joint 
activities, (b) One minister, (c) Each church to con- 
tribute to its own denominational benevolences, (d) A 
joint committee from each church to handle the affairs 
of the federated churches. 

d. In cases of complaint concerning inadequate lead- 
ership, such complaint shall be brought to the attention 
of the denominational leader concerned, and should the 
apparently inadequate leadership continue it shall be a 
matter of consultation and agreement with the super- 
intendents or secretaries involved, in order to strengthen 
the work. 

e. It is understood that in carrying out the principles 
herein outlined, the undersigned cannot contravene the 
rules or action of their ecclesiastical bodies, but will do 
all in their power to secure the support of these bodies 
for these principles. 



58 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

The success of the work done in Vermont is most re- 
markable. It has been directed by the state home mis- 
sionary superintendents and district superintendents of 
the Baptist, Congregational, and Methodist churches. 

In Massachusetts the State Federation has dealt suc- 
cessfully with no less than fifty-two cases since 1914. 
The method usually followed has been the formation of 
the federated church. 

A more inclusive experiment was carried out in Mon- 
tana in the summer of 1919 by the Committee on Comity 
and Cooperation of the Home Missions Council. The full 
report of this undertaking can be obtained by waiting to 
the Secretary of the Council at the address given above. 

This Montana experiment has made plain facts w^hich 
have been emerging in the convictions of experienced 
administrators, that the cooperation of churches within 
local communities requires the assent of three distinct 
groups : 

1. The first group of people involved, and often 
thought of as the only group, consists of the Christians 
within a given communit\% whether organized as one 
church with differences among its individual members, 
or organized as several little churches, the ecclesiastical 
differences being less marked within the separate 
groups. 

2. However, it must be borne in mind that the 
bishops, superintendents, secretaries, and administra- 
tive committees of the denominational organizations 
which are next above the local church, and in which 
the local church has its membership, or to which the local 
church is in some wav accountable, must be taken into 



SURVEY, PROGRAM, AND COMITY 59 

account. By reason of its history, and because of its 
social relationships and obligations, no church has really 
an ethical right to disregard these outside and overhead 
responsibilities. As an individual cannot be only an in- 
dividual, but must have social relations, so a church can- 
not be purely local, but must sustain its ecclesiastical 
relations. There are these officers who are charged with 
the duty of preserving the life and promoting the wel- 
fare of the ecclesiastical organism of which the local 
church is a part. Unless these officers, this group of 
administrative agents of the Church in the large sense, 
approve the plans and the acts of the constituent parts 
of the organism, these parts themselves will be dis- 
turbed, if not indeed altogether prevented, in taking 
free action and making changes toward cooperation and 
federation. Any local combination, disapproved by the 
overhead administration, is quite sure sooner or later to 
have troubles arising within its policies and plans. 

3. The national boards and the great ecclesiastical cen- 
ters of each denomination are also parties to the policies 
and the acts of every local church within the denomina- 
tional fellowship. If all of the local churches should at 
any given moment cease to function, outwardly and up- 
wardly, toward these denominational centers, the cen- 
ters themselves would soon cease to exist. When a 
single local church withdraws its fellowship and support, 
to the extent of its influence and importance it affects 
headquarters. There is a unity and a community of in- 
terests, binding all of the parts together, from the outer- 
most extremity of the smallest congregation unto the head 
center of the most influential administrative body. 



60 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

Really, in justice to all parties concerned in a single 
denomination, action taken by any local church should 
be taken only with full understanding and with the con- 
sent and approval of the highest ecclesiastical authorities. 
This statement is but a recognition of the interrelation of 
various parts in a constituted whole, and is an acknowl- 
edgment that in the process of years these parts, each in 
proportion to its size and influence, gather to themselves 
a moral responsibility to the other parts — a responsibility 
which should not be set aside without fair consideration, 
mutual agreement, and equitable adjustment. 

The Montana plan has its largest merit in the fact 
that it brought together authorized representatives of 
these three groups of custodians, trustees, and admin- 
istrators of denominational interests and secured the con- 
current agreement of all three. 

The surveys of the Interchurch World Movement 
revealed the vital need of the Church for wise and fear- 
less plans that will bring about *'the essential oneness of 
Christian churches in America, in Jesus Christ as the 
Divine Lord and Saviour," and to "promote the spirit 
of fellowship, service, and cooperation among them." 



CHAPTER III 

EVANGELISM 

This is a day of great heart searching for the Church. 
Her records are not altogether pleasant reading. There 
are too many minus signs in the columns which should in- 
dicate spiritual effectiveness. The Church is humiliated. 
What is the remedy? By common consent the entire 
Church is saying, **We need the evangel of the Son of 
God" — the note which the Church first sounded and 
which is the keynote on which her whole message is 
based. No social gospel can take the place of a spiritual 
gospel. It is rather the spiritual gospel which must 
precede and embody every social message that is to help 
the world. Rootage comes before fruitage, and the roots 
of all worthy reform and stable growth draw nourishment 
out of the deep subsoil of individual spiritual life. 

The times demand that the evangelistic note dom- 
inate in every pulpit. The business of urging men to 
immediate and intelligent choice of Jesus Christ should 
be the one outstanding business of the Church. The one 
thing that will make a united Church is the transforming, 
molding power of the love of God. We can all agree 
on the call of Jesus to become disciples and to make 
disciples as the spiritual test of real discipleship. 'Tn 
any adequate conception of evangelism, social evangelism 
must be the outcome of a personal and spiritual evangel- 
ism. True evangelism will never stop short of a social 
expression in the manifold life of the community. To 
this one great task of the age every energy of the Church 

61 



62 COMMUNITY PROGR.-UIS FOR CHURCHES 

must be bent. Such an evangelistic movement will not go 
forward of itself. It needs to be thoroughly organized. 
When superbly organized it must be spiritually \4talized. 
It needs the best which the heart and brains of the 
Church can supply. ^linisters and laymen must have 
the passion of their Lord. An evangelistic inclination 
is not enough; inclination must be fused to the white 
heat of an unconquerable evangelistic passion." 

This great evangehstic movement will not go forward 
of itself. It needs to be thoroughly organized. It needs 
the best which the heart and brains of the Church can 
supply. Z^Iinisters and laymen must have the passion of 
their Lord. Given a heart on iire, we must then plan to 
unite all denominational agencies in such an intelligent, 
methodical presentation of the ringing message that every 
cit}' and even,- comm.unit)- will feel its power and give 
good heed to the message. 

I. Evangelism through City, County, and State 
Councils of Churches 

We have come to a new day in evangelism. The ef- 
fort heretofore centered in the local church and com- 
munity has greatly widened in this nev\- era of coopera- 
tion. The local church is still the supreme factor, but it 
is the local church related to every orher church in an 
effort to arouse ever}* potency in a given area. 

We have come also to a new day in federation work. 
Through many experiments and partial failures we are 
learning that federations are not intended to destroy the 
individuality of local churches or denominations, but that 
there are wide ranges of sen^ice in which each can func- 



EVANGELISM 63 

tion in a larger way. Evangelism is the whole church 
working to reach every individual in its community for 
Christ. The community slogan ought to be every local 
church in the community with a definite program of 
evangelism for the entire year and every church co- 
operating with eYtry other church in special features of 
cooperative and continuous evangelistic endeavor. 

The Council of Churches lends itself helpfully to the 
realizing of this ideal. The spirit of cooperation which 
is the dominant note in church activities at this time 
is the foundation principle of church federation. The 
federation is constantly alert to discover those aims in 
which there are no possible controversies. As never 
before the churches are agreed on the necessity for an 
evangelism that is not interested in the incidental fea- 
tures of outworn evangelistic methods or verbal theo- 
logical controversies and insist on a fundamental evan- 
gelism which deals with life — life here and now as well 
as the life hereafter. 

For an effective world evangelism, three convictions 
must control: first, every Christian must face the chal- 
lenge that every real disciple of Christ is definitely 
charged with the responsibility, and can claim the per- 
sonal privilege of finding new disciples for Christ; sec- 
ond, every pastor, no matter what his special excellences, 
must be an effective evangelist and the normal leader of 
evangelistic conquest in the community through his 
church ; third, every group of Christians associated to- 
gether in a religious society called a church must make 
that organized church a continuous and compelling evan- 
gelist to the community in which it is located. No other 



64 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

evangelistic agency can compare in value and power with 
the local church as an organized Kingdom force. 

In these agreements church federations may stimulate 
and prosecute evangelism in several ways: 

1. A Commission on Evangelism 

A general commission composed of representatives of 
the churches in the federation should arrange a pro- 
gram for the church year, sufficiently flexible to allow 
each church large freedom concerning its own plans, 
at the same time limiting intenser w^ork within such a 
period so as to derive the largest benefit from simultaneous 
effort. It should urge and assist groups of churches to 
hold simultaneous evangelistic meetings assisted by local 
pastors. If community sentiment seems to require a 
large union meeting, the cofnmittee of the federation 
can greatly safeguard its effectiveness. While cordial to 
every method of effective evangelism, the committee will 
be interested chiefly in enlisting the evangelistic activity 
and developing the evangelistic strength of every local 
church. 

2. Conferences on Evangelism of All the Pastors 

In the multiplicity of demands upon the pastor's time 
and thought there is need every now and then to heed 
the Master's call, "Come ye apart." A "retreat" in which 
the entire evangelistic responsibility of every pastor and 
every local church is fearlessly faced and in which the 
dominance of the evangelistic motive over all evangelistic 
method is sought and secured, should be held. Such a 
gathering will create new evangelistic conviction, stimu- 



EVANGELISM 65 

late new evangelistic confidence, arouse new evangelistic 
courage and result in new evangelistic consecration. 

3. Inspirational Meetings for the Entire Com- 

munity 

Under the auspices o£ the federation inspirational 
speakers may be secured who are experienced in evan- 
gelism, men of passion and power who can indicate ways 
and methods, especially if they are strong pastors. Series 
of such meetings in the autumn and during the Lenten 
season have been most helpful. "They can stir the hearts 
of the lay workers of the churches and greatly aid in 
creating an evangelistic atmosphere and a spiritual pas- 
sion to save the lives of men and reconstruct spiritually 
the total life of the community." Such plans could prof- 
itably cover several series of meetings lasting in all per- 
haps a month or longer, with meetings in some central 
place at a noon hour, more especially for laymen, and 
in various churches in the evenings for all classes, and 
special meetings for education and instruction in various 
forms of personal work in evangelism. 

4. Organization by Districts 

Cooperation is essential ; thorough organization of the 
community is essential to a thoroughgoing evangelism. 
Such an organization should be worked out by all 
the churches in cooperation through a church feder- 
ation or other central organization representing the 
churches. A system of supervision by blocks or other 
geographical units is suggested. Over each unit of or- 
ganization permanent leaders should be placed under 
whose direction many lines of work may be undertaken, 



66 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

such as friendly visitation, distribution of literature, 
watchfulness against the encroachments of evils and com- 
bating those that exist, evangelistic campaigns for better 
social conditions, and all other forms of Christian social 
service. Here is an opportunity for the strongest laymen. 
Over all this service should be the constant purpose to 
inspire faith in God and to create conditions for sound 
political, moral, and spiritual health in the community. 
By this plan all the interests which aflfect the life of the 
community will be under constant Christian watch-care 
and will yield rich results. 

5. Evangelistic Literature 

The Commission on Evangelism of the^ Federal Coun- 
cil of Churches is at the disposal of the churches of 
America for suggestions as to effective community 
evangelism. 

The federation can be of incalculable help to pastor 
and churches by collecting a library on evangelism, sup- 
plying literature on tested methods, and providing a list 
of capable clergymen evangelists approved by their re- 
spective churches, and evangelistic helpers. 

The denominational evangelistic commissions now is- 
sue splendid literature to aid the pastors. As the national 
secretaries cooperate in their work the denominational 
campaigns are synchronized. In a conference held in 
New York City, April 15, 1920, the general outline of the 
evangelistic plans for 1920-21 was adopted. So far as 
possible, community and federation evangelistic plans 
should be worked out in harmony with nation-wide de- 
nominational plans. There is no intention on the part 
of the federation to suggest a substitute for the evangel- 



EVANGELISM 67 

istic programs of the various denominations but only to 
suggest those community and cooperative features of 
evangeHstic endeavor which will supplement denomina- 
tional plans. Thus the local churches will not be 
confused. Copies of these plans as they are worked 
out in detail can be secured with the literature by writing 
to denominational headquarters. A committee of the sec- 
retaries of evangelism for the different denominations 
has been appointed to take up the matter of simultane- 
ous evangelistic campaigns with special reference to the 
rural churches. 

6. The? Goal 

The Evangelistic Commission of the federation will not 
have reached its goal until every unchurched member of 
the community has been given a fair and full oppor- 
tunity and has been lovingly impleaded to consider 
the claims of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Toward this 
the committee should direct its efforts: (a) In having 
an intelligent survey of each church parish made and 
(b) through committees selected in each church having 
every person personally visited during a simultaneous 
visitation period. Such a simultaneous expression of 
loving interest on the part of the church membership in 
the unchurched friends in every parish would be of un- 
told spiritual value. The glory of accomplishing such a 
task is the possibility and the privilege of the federation. 

II. Fields and Forces for Community Evangelism 

The Commission on Evangelism of a city federation or 
the Committee on Evangelism of a smaller community at- 
tains its greatest usefulness when the forces included in 



68 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

the churches are most fully utilized and the various fields 
most fully occupied. In making the plans for the year's 
work there should be a careful study of both. A number 
of facts are brought to the attention of those concerned, 
with a few suggestions as to what needs to be done. 

1. Evangelism through the Minister's Message 

Among the many factors for propagating the Gospel, 
the most conspicuous is preaching. "It pleased God by 
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." 
I^Ien, divinely called to preach, have laid upon them the 
most tremendous responsibility that God ever laid on 
mortal man. They stand as the earthly agents of the 
risen Lord. *'Now we are ambassadors for Christ." 

What is the message needed? The whole Gospel 
preached to the whole man, by one who himself has been 
made whole by this selfsame Gospel. Jesus Christ is the 
central figure of both the Old and the New Testament. 
All Scriptures either point toward Him or back to Him. 
He must be the center and substance of all evangelistic 
preaching. All the use the minister has for history, 
poetry, or philosophy, whether these be found in the 
Bible or in other literature, is to elucidate, illustrate, 
and accentuate his message concerning Christ. Every- 
thing he can comprehend in his whole intellectual range 
must be classified and arranged with reference to pro- 
claiming Christ. Jesus said of himself: "And I, if I be 
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." 
He still has that power. He is the most magnetic, ma- 
jestic, and colossal figure of the ages. The more clearly 
Christ stands out in the message, the more evangelistic 
power it will have in it. 



EVANGELISM 69 

"Ever}^ spiritual epoch in the life of the Church will 
have an enlarged conception of God. The spiritual hun- 
ger of the twentieth century cannot be satisfied with the 
tenth century conception of God. God is to be inter- 
preted to all men everywhere in terms of today's need: 
personal need, social need, national need, and interna- 
tional need. There are no complexities in the social 
order of today to which God is not equal. The bigger 
the need of men the bigger God must be in order to 
supply 'every need according to his riches of glory in 
Christ Jesus.* Whatever changes may take place in the 
conditions of the changing centuries, we have an un- 
changed and unchanging Christ. Our knowledge of Him 
grows with the growing soul of the race ; our unswerving 
loyalty to Him must keep pace with that increasing knowl- 
edge, Christ is the only final interpretation of God. 
The complete Christ of the New Testament is the irre- 
ducible minimum of the Gospel message." 

The most notable advance made by the churches in the 
last three years has been the recognition of the fact that 
evangelistic work is more permanent when it is the re- 
sult of the leadership of the resident clergymen instead 
of that of strangers. The following paragraphs repeat- 
edly emphasize this principle. 

2. Evangelism through the Laymen of the Church 

Any man who has a religion is bound to do one of two 
things with it: change it or spread it. li it is not true, 
he must give it up. If it is true, he must give it away. 
This is not the duty of ministers only. Religion is not: 
the affair of a profession or a caste. It is the business 
of every common man. The religion that would spread 



70 COMMUNITY PROGR.UIS FOR CHURCHES 

among men must be offered by man to man, and its power 
must be seen dominating the lives of all of its adherents, 
and making them eager for its dissemination. The re- 
ligion of Islam grows rapidly because every adherent of 
that faith is an aggressive, active missionary of the faith 
which he has received. With no missionary organization 
that religion has spread over western Asia and North 
Africa, and still retains a strong foothold on the soil of 
Europe. 

The Win One Legion is commended to all the churches 
as an agency to enlist the men of the churches in the work 
of winning other men to an acceptance of Christ as 
Saviour and Lord. 

The largest unused evangelistic asset in American 
Protestantism is the group of laymen holding official 
positions in the local churches. These church officials 
determine the evangelistic life of the community. As 
the church officials go, so goes the church. If the office 
bearers of American Protestantism could be awakened 
and aroused to an acceptance of their evangelistic oppor- 
tunity, America would witness the writing of a new- 
chapter in evangelistic history. 

The leading business men of this country will never 
be won to Christ except by prominent Christian business 
men whose hearts are kindled with passionate devotion 
to Christ. Big risks must be taken for Christ with men 
whose brains and hearts are molding the life of the 
nation by their acknowledged powers of leadership. The 
strongest men in industrial, social, and financial circles 
of America must be challenged by laymen of like type 
to share the responsibility of bringing in Christ's King- 
dom on earth. They dare not evade or avoid sharing 



EVANGELISM 71 

in the responsibility 6f actualizing the Scnnon on the 
Mount in the week-day life and work of the world. 
Christian business men must be challenged to vitalize 
their personal relation to Christ as a prerequisite to 
Christianizing every part and parcel of the social order. 
Only so will our nation and empire builders become 
Kingdom builders under the dominion of the leadership 
of Christ. 

3. Evangelism through the Pocket Testament 

League 

A group of Philadelphia business men upon the en- 
trance of America into the war caught a vision of what 
this might mean to the soldiers and sailors, and conse- 
quently about a half -million Testaments were distributed 
by the field staff of the interdenominational Business 
Men's War Council of the Pocket Testament League, 
reaching the soldiers and sailors of the American forces 
with a definite evangelistic message. More than 125,000 
of our boys signed the League's membership card, thereby 
signifying their acceptance of Christ in the meetings con- 
ducted by the League staflF. This same Business Men's 
Council, believing that its work had not ended with the 
close of the war, turned its attention to the great indus- 
trial establishments. The Council added to its number 
a cooperating committee of ministers and since last au- 
tumn has held many meetings in hundreds of industrial 
plants. 

4. Evangelism through Family Religious Influ- 

ences 

Religion was an affair of the home long before it 



72 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

became associated with cathedrals and churches. The 
rehgious father of the early ages was a priest in his 
own household. Abraham, we are told, through the exer- 
cise of true parental authority and righteous concern, 
made his home a training school for godly character, 
and his children kept the way of the Lord. The Lord 
said, "The words which I command thee, thou shalt 
teach them to thy children," and the fact that there is 
so little place for such exercise in the family life of 
this day is a sad commentary on the religious drift of the 
centuries through which we have come. Taking for 
granted that concern for the unsaved which is always 
an essential prerequisite for soul-winning, there are four 
elements which may very properly be said to enter into 
successful family evangelism. They constitute the mes- 
sage of the Commission on Evangelism. 

a. Consistent living. The life must be irreproachable. 
The best way to investigate a man's piety is to talk with 
those who live with him in the home. It is here that one's 
Christian life is under the closest scrutiny and if it is 
grossly inconsistent with the profession that is made, 
the powder for influence is gone and any attempt in the 
way of personal effort will meet with well-deserved in- 
difference. 

h. Private prayer. To fail here is to fail altogether. 

Do you remember how Whitfield used to pray, "Oh 
Lord, give me souls or take my own"? If one is 
weak in soul-winning it is because he has not grown 
strong in the prayer life. Said a man whose experience 
had led him down through the saloon, the jail, and into 
the very darkest dungeons of sin, but whom God won- 



EVANGELISM 1Z 

der fully and remarkably saved, "I have never met a 
really bad man who had a praying mother. I have 
met men who wandered away from the teaching of 
their mothers, but sooner or later, though it has been 
many times only in the hour of prayer, they have turned 
to their mother's God and were saved." 

c. Personal effort. If ever a Christian is to do a bit 
of individual evangelism there is no sphere which so pre- 
sents the opportunity for it as does the family circle. 
James brought his brother John to see Jesus and Andrew 
brought his brother Peter. No story told by Gypsy Smith 
is more thrilling than that of the conversion of the mem- 
bers of his own household. 

d. Family worship. It is needless to argue the neces- 
sity for family worship as an integral part of the religious 
life of the home if the thought of God for the family is 
to be realized and the children are to be won and kept 
for Jesus Christ. How many scores of individuals have 
said that it was the influence of family worship in their 
home that kept them, when it seemed as though all the 
forces of evil were concentrated in determined effort for 
their undoing ! And though the son or perhaps the daugh- 
ter has sometimes gone away in spite of it all, and the 
life has been stained with sin, the memory of those 
blessed times of prayer has brought many a wanderer 
back in tears to Mother's faith and Father's God. The 
commissions on evangelism of several denominations now 
issue helpful, practical suggestions for the family altar. 

5. Evangelism through Programs of Religious Edu- 
cation 
Evangelism and religious education have often seemed 



74 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

to be two entirely separate and distinct methods of ap- 
peal to the individual. This is because evangelism has 
been sometimes confused with certain kinds of evange- 
listic meetings. The accepted fact concerning the spirit- 
ual life which underlies all evangelistic effort is that a 
definite commitment of will is essential to real Christian 
living and that, therefore, the supremely important thing 
is so to present Jesus Christ to the individual that he 
shall be led to make that concrete act of will by which 
his life is consciously committed to the realization in con- 
duct of the ideals of Jesus. 

Programs of religious education rest primarily on the 
assumption that commitment of the will without an intel- 
ligent mental grasp is not only in itself inadequate 
but often dangerous as the basis of Christian experience. 
Religious education tends to rely largely upon the persist- 
ent, progressive presentation of truth in the form best 
suited to the age and background of the individual for 
the development of Christian life. Its frequent failure to 
produce the desired results lies in the fact that it often 
appeals almost wholly to the intellect and does not chal- 
lenge the will and so secure that commitment of the 
whole self, including the emotional and affectional nature 
as well as the intellect, to the new way of life. 

In the highest type of Christian teacher, evangelism 
and religious education will always tend to merge so com- 
pletely that it is impossible to trace the line between 
them. For such a teacher to discuss life with his pupils, 
is always to challenge them to personal commitment to 
truth when it is found. Effective evangelism will be 
accomplished through any program of education to just 



EVANGELISM 75 

the extent that the teacher himself possesses the enthu- 
siasm for and devotion to that faith that he presents. 

6. Evangelism with the Crowd in Streets and 
Parks 

The fact that more than fifty per cent of all our popu- 
lation, either country or city dwellers, never attend a 
place of worship should drive us seriously to consider 
how to reach them most effectually with the gospel mes- 
sage. Cities and towns have become the dwelling place 
of the crowds and the crowds are found in the streets 
and parks. Mischief-makers and venders of false doc- 
trines and **isms" of all kinds find a rich soil in the crowd 
of the street in which to sow their nefarious tares. The 
Church has waited too long to organize for the evangeli- 
zation of the masses in streets and parks. The hour has 
struck for the Church to go to the highways and hedges 
and openly to urge men to consider the claims of God 
upon their lives. This fertile field must be entered pray- 
erfully and courageously by the organized Church of God 
with its burning message of love. 

a. Organization for the task. No organization of 
the Protestant churches is quite so well prepared to plan 
for and supervise this difficult piece of religious work as 
the coimcil or federation of churches of the city. It 
should have, however, the hearty cooperation of the Min- 
isters' Association and the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, for the work must be done interdenominationally 
if it is to succeed permanently. Where no federation of 
churches exists, a strong interdenominational committee 
of ministers and laymen might well organize for the 
work. 



l(i COMMUNITY PROGR.\MS FOR CHURCHES 

h. The message-hearer. The man set apart for this 
great work must fully understand the difficulties. The 
crowd is not in quest of religion. The crowd is restless, 
unbelieving, and greatly indifferent. It will be made up 
of antagonistic groups. The preacher must know the 
mind of the crowd and be "wise as serpents and harmless 
as doves." Let him be a man filled with the Spirit, to 
whom the call of God is clear and the claims of Jesus 
Christ irrevocable. 

c. The equipment. The message of the preacher must 
be reenforced by music, vocal and instrumental, to assist 
in drawing and holding the crowd. Get the best talent 
obtainable — orchestra, cornet, band, or male quartette. 
Freely distribute Testaments and pocket editions of the 
gospels. Use automobile for pulpit and for singers. Go 
wherever a crowd can be gathered. Always obtain the 
consent of the proper city officials for use of parks and 
streets. Keep the appointments as regularly and punc- 
tually as the Sunday morning service. 

d. The message itself. The message is the heart of 
the whole program. The open-air meeting is not an en- 
tertainment. The proposition is clean cut — "The match- 
less love of God for sinners — Choose you this day whom 
ye will serve — All we like sheep have gone astray — Come 
unto me all ye that labor — The Spirit and the Bride Say 
come." Whatever the attitude of the crowd, sympathetic 
or hostile, they are to be addressed as though the message 
never had been given. To many it will be an unknown 
God whom the speaker will present. But underneath 
each coat is a heart that ceaselessly yearns for the living 
God — aimlessly seeking strange devices to satisfy the in- 



EVANGELISM ^y 

sistent demands of the soul. Preeminently, religion is the 
need of the crowd. 

e. The foliow-iip. Those who are in charge of the 
park and street meetings must not be content with giving 
the message. So far as possible neat cards of invitation 
should be placed in the hands of those present, especially 
of those who manifest an interest, inviting them to places 
of worship and indicating how a personal interview may 
be held with the speaker. Some such information should 
also be given on a display card or banner which all can 
read. 

7. Evangelism in the Industrial Field 

While the latest census figures are not yet available, 
it is estimated that there are 21,000,000 wage earners in 
the United States. This does not include the farmers. 
We understand this great section of our population to be 
the industrial field. By evangelism in industry we mean 
the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in the 
language of the twentieth century, to men grappling with 
the difficult individual and social problems of the times. 
The objective of this message is to win industrial men 
to acknowledge Christ as Saviour and Lord, and to live 
in loyal obedience to Him. 

It is the judgment of the Commission that the men 
in industry, both in the office and in the shop or factory, 
are open to the gospel message as never before in the 
history of modern industry. It is significent when a great 
labor leader makes in effect the statement that "the only 
solution of our vexed industrial problem lies in a more, 
consistent and intelligent application of the principles 
of Jesus as embodied in the Golden Rule." It is also in- 



78 COMMUNITY PRC>GR.\MS FOR CHURCHES 

dicative of the workingman's desire for Christian leader- 
ship \\'hen the Ohio Valley Trades and Labor Assembly 
of Wheeling. West Virginia, unanimously declares its 
belief ''that the teachings of Jesus constitute a platform 
upon which all men can agree We believe that they can 
be applied to the industrial problem. We will co-operate 
with those who will join us in an earnest endeavor to 
apply his teachings in the Wheeling District" This is a 
twentieth-centur\' Macedonian call, "Come over into in- 
dustr}' and help us.*' 

The plans should be made at once for the reenforce- 
ment of every agency which is endeavoring to bring the 
gospel message to industrial men through the spoken 
word or bj' the demonstration of the Christian spirit in 
service. 

While local churches and denominational bodies 
should be urged and helped to do their full part in this 
field, it is our conviction that a powerful agency repre- 
senting the united Protestant Church, and in dose coop- 
eration with all the churches, should immediately be au- 
thorized to lead in the e\'angelistic work with industrial 
men. 

It has been demonsairated that the industrial man 
responds to the full Gospel from the messenger who 
speaks in language he can understand and who deals with 
problems vital to his life. The man going on this mission 
into this fxeld, howe^-er, will wisely take into careful con- 
sideration the religious inheritance, consciousness, and 
outlook of the various groups in industr\\ 

Finally, we suggest the enlarged use of the tested 
methods of contact with industrial men. Organized per- 
sonal friendly contact in their homes is primary' in im- 



EVANGELISM 79 

portance. Jesus began His project of evangelizing tlie 
world in a humble home. Mass contact is also important 
and may be secured through the labor imion as well as 
in churches, halls, and theaters. Street and park meet- 
ings in the summer offer a platform largely used by the 
opponents of the Church, but as yet almost unoccupied 
by the Church itself. An unequaled opportunity to reach 
industrial men with the gospel message lies in the shop 
meeting at the noon hour. 

Plans to enter the industrial field more fully should in- 
clude a larger use of volunteer workers among indus- 
trial men themselves. We must work with as weU as 
for the men in industry. More effective methods of re- 
lating these men to the churches of their choice should 
also be worked out. The suggestions made for street and 
park meetings are applicable to office and shop meetings. 

8. Evangelism and Social Service 

The great objective of both social service and 
evangelism is to bring God into human life. The pur- 
pose of both is the redemption of society. These two 
methods of work are not parallel but complementary and 
interrelated. The Christian message produces the spirit 
which makes community service possible and community 
service is brought to perfection when it wins men, women, 
and children to faith in Christ and produces a Christian 
social order for them to live in. 

All personal ideals center in Jesus Christ; all social 
ideals culminate in the Kingdom of God. 

The evangelism that does not plan for the community 
is socially deficient and the community service which is 
not evangelistic in its spirit and program is spiritually 



80 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

deficient. Evangelism through social service is primarily 
a matter of spirit and point of view. This involves both 
social service agencies and the churches. They must be 
led to share each other's point of view and spirit and 
cooperate in all that affects the life of the community. 
The ideal church is one in which social service and 
evangelism are blended because they are born and nur- 
tured in the same spirit of devotion. 

A thorough study of the total life of the community 
is the only adequate background for either social service 
or evangelism. Surveys have been made and have varied 
greatly in value. Some have produced large beneficial 
results. A survey in every county and community, 
has in it evangelistic possibilities of untold power. The 
survey rightly conceived and carried out is an honest 
and intelligent attempt to find out what the whole task 
of the Church is, for the purpose of undertaking to do it. 
Such a complete study cannot be made unless all the 
community agencies are vitally related to it and all 
points of view are taken into account. The social service 
agencies are in possession of certain facts and experience 
which are invaluable. Wherever such agencies exist, 
their cooperation should be sought. Where there are no 
social service organizations separate from the churches, 
the opportunity is golden to lead the churches themselves 
to face and master all the facts of need and opportunity 
in the community. 

There should be cooperation not only in securing the 
facts but also in interpreting them. Every social condi- 
tion which lays waste life is a challenge to the reality 
of the evangelistic message and program of the churches. 
Service to the community through securing better hous- 



EVANGELISM 81 

ing conditions, espousing the cause of all the people in 
securing justice and better laboring and living conditions 
—in short, all that helps to safeguard and enrich human 
life furnishes an opportunity to win the attention and 
allegiance of many who could not be reached by ordinary 
evangelistic methods. Then, too, the reactions on the 
church workers are most inspiring and helpful. Re- 
ligion becomes a matter of the most practical concern 
and reaches into all the interests of the community. It 
should go without saying that the motive in all this is 
not simply to add members to the churches but pri- 
marily to serve men. 

9. Evangelism during the Period o'f Lent 

Lent is peculiarly adapted to the evangelistic work of 
the Church. There is a natural freshening of life and 
a broadening of interests which encourage folks to think 
along new lines and better Hues, and which seem to make 
it easier for people to come to definite vital decisions. 
In addition to these natural helps, the thoughts of people 
are turned to religious things by the advertisements in 
the papers, by the articles in magazines, and by the 
progress of the church year, which more and more recog- 
nizes the religious significance of the Lenten period as 
a period of self-examination and the Easter season as a 
time of spiritual exaltation. 

To make the most of the Lenten period along evangelis- 
tic lines, a church must make definite plans to this end 
during the whole church year. The church program 
which seeks to be an all-the-year-round program of evan- 
gelism, embracing as It should all the various organiza- 
tions of the church, must be framed so as to offer a 



82 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

constructive program of church work, initiated in definite 
fashion in the fall and carried through in regular order, 
so that the church and the community may be ready for 
the season of harvest which the Lenten season ought 
to be. 

First of all in importance is the preaching from the 
pulpit. There ought to be a definite evangelistic appeal 
in every pulpit utterance during the Lenten period. 

The second item of church activity during the Lenten 
period, which grows naturally out of the first, is the en- 
listment and training of a few consecrated men and 
women who will cooperate with the pastor in personal 
work. We all are meeting day after day men and women 
in various walks of life who are waiting for someone to 
say the one word of encouragement which will bring 
them to decision. The pastor cannot possibly reach all 
the people whose names will be on his list of prospective 
members, but he can reach a large proportion of them 
if he has the ability and willingness to enlist others to 
help. Those who do assist the pastor should be asked 
to make a study of methods of personal work and should 
be encouraged in every way by the pastor and by their 
fellow-workers to continue in this most worth-while 
service. 

The third item of the Lenten program should be the 
establishment of a definite program of prayer; that is, 
the^ prayer life of the people should be centered around 
certain great common subjects of prayer, and their lives 
should be united in a great volume of intercession. Some 
communions are finding it exceedingly helpful to pro- 
vide their communicants with prayer booklets for indi- 
vidual, family, and church use, and this feature of church 



EVANGELISM 83 

work will be extended as the need for unified prayer is 
realized and the results of such definite prayer become 
evident in the life and work of the church. 

The fourth item of the program is the organization 
and carrying through of some definite sort of training 
for the young people of the parish. It is exceedingly 
helpful if the pastor will organize among the children 
twelve years of age and older a group to make a careful 
study of the fundamentals of Christian faith and the 
meaning of church membership. 

The fifth item of the program is the holding of noon- 
day meetings in some centrally located church or theater 
during the Lenten period. Palm Sunday may serve as a 
fitting time for the commitment of individuals to Christ 
and the Church. Alt c^f the churches join in this brief 
service, the message of the day being given by some local 
pastor or by some noted speaker from another city, 
throughout the country these meetings are proving to 
be most helpful. 

Good Friday from twelve to three o'clock may well be 
observed by Protestant churches with special services. 
The city of Detroit witnessed a marvelous celebration 
this year. At the request of the Detroit Council of 
Churches and the Holy Name Society, the Mayor issued 
a proclamation closing the business houses for these three 
hours. The county offices, city hall, stock exchange, 
moving picture shows, and other places of business were 
closed. The Council planned for twelve great union 
services three hours in length, all of which were crowded 
to the doors and thousands could not get in. This made 
a most profound impression upon the city. Greatly 



84 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

enlarged plans will be made by the Detroit Council next 
year. 

10. Evangelism through Vocational Evangelists 

We gratefully recognize the debt of the church to the 
vocational evangelists, who from the days of Whitefield, 
Finney, and Moody to the days of men now living, have 
aroused and stimulated the churches to a more zealous 
and spiritual life and ministry-. There are men of signal 
gifts who have been used of God to stir churches and 
communities to deeper devotion, the results of whose 
work have been permanent. God has made some men 
evangelists of this type and there will always be a place 
in the church for the exercise of their gifts. 

We are agreed that the normal and ideal condition 
in evangelistic work is where pastor and people unite in 
persistent pastoral and personal effort to win the entire 
community to the personal choice of Jesus Christ as 
Saviour and Lord. In the carrying forward of that work 
we will welcome the aid of those men and women who 
are authorized by the churches and have received the 
approval of God in the success which has attended their 
ministry. We will do all in our power to discourage 
sensational methods and the inordinate desire to increase 
statistics as well as undue emphasis on financial returns. 

11. Evangelism in Colleges and Universities 

There is no more imperative evangelistic challenge than 
presents itself in the student bodies of the nation. In 
the colleges and universities under church auspices, as 
well as among the vast number of students in state uni- 
versities, normal colleges, and in all tax supported insti- 



EVANGELISM 85 

tutions, will be found an opportunity for the presentation 
of the complete Christian message, the ready response 
to which would both startle and gratify the Church. 
Every possible cooperation should be sought by the 
Federal Council of Churches with the student depart- 
ments of the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. in 
securing a hearing in all institutions of higher learning 
for the Gospel of Christ and for the work of Christ^s 
Church in the world. We especially commend the method 
of encouraging student initiative both in the making of 
plans for any concerted evangelistic efltort within the 
institution, and also for the continuous development of 
evangelistic responsibility among the students themselves 
for the enlistment of their fellow-students in disciple- 
ship to Christ and in all the varied forms of Christian 
service as a life work. 

Conclusion 

The awakening Church of today faces a new world. 
She is face to face with the greatest opportunities of her 
history. She looks into such vistas of service and vic- 
tory as she has not seen since the morning stars sang 
together. Countless millions of hands — empty, wounded, 
bleeding hands — are stretching out to her for help. Mil- 
lions of voices cry to her from up and down the shore'; 
of the earth: "We have lost our way. The night is 
dark ! We hunger ! We thirst ! We are naked and co(d ! 
Take us back to our Father! Give us God!" Will the 
Church answer the cry? Will she meet the need? Will 
she answer the cry of the hour? 

This awakening Church must enthusiastically promote 



86 



'XITY PROGRA] 



CHURCHES 



the enriching fellowship of Christians, the overwhelming 
revelations of world needs, and the challenging progress 
of Christian service. How disappointing, how transitory, 
how inadequate will all this be unless men ever>'where 
come into the new and fresh and vitalizing fellowship 
with Jesus Christ. The supreme issue before this" awak- 
ening Church is that Christ shall be the g^eat living 
reality of these days and that the membership of the 
entire Church of God shall be yielded to His complete 
master)*. With this vision and in answer to the challenge 
of the hour, the issue of Evangelism must make sure. 



CHAPTER IV 

SOCIAL SERVICE 

The economic and industrial organization of society 
has attained, in the thought of our time, an importance 
which was never before attached to it As a result the 
whole social order is undergoing a reconstruction. The 
urgent questions of the day are the questions of 
wealth and poverty, of capital and labor, of peace 
and war. Underneath these issues are the deeper ques- 
tions of human rights and relationships. During the 
World War and because of it, the gigantic framework 
of society underwent a violent dislocation. The result 
is an insistent demand, not for readjustment only, but 
for reconstruction around enduring principles. At the 
heart of this problem lies the great field of social service. 

The passion for social justice, as well as social serv- 
ice, consumes men today, and if this passion is to be satis- 
fied the churches must emphasize the Christian social 
order and practice social service as never before. The 
rapidly expanding social work, together with the social 
unrest of our day, demands enlarged conceptions, new 
definitions, and the restatement of the program of the 
churches. 

I. What Is Social Service? 

From the Christian point of view social service is the 
effort of the churches to find practical ways in which the 
prayer our Lord taught us, "Thy Kingdom come," may 
be answered ; to obey the commandment, "Love thy neigh- 

87 



88 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

bor as thyself"; and to apply the Golden Rule to all the 
relationships of life. 

II. Why Should the Churches Emphasize Social 

Service? 

1. Because the churches, by teaching the Gospel of 
Christ, have created a deep sense of the value of human 
personality, a consciousness of social solidarity and re- 
sponsibility, and a real discontent growing out of a sense 
of the social wrongs of our day. 

2. Because the churches have in the Gospel of Christ 
the only adequate basis for a sound social order for the 
reason that the churches deal with the deeper causes of 
social unrest, namely, sin in the individual and selfish- 
ness in society. 

III. What Is the Purpose of the Social Service 

Commission of the Federation? 

The Commission of Social Service moves forward in 
cooperation with all the other departments of the feder- 
ation in a determination to make and keep the com- 
munity Christian. This it does by stimulating, coordi- 
nating, and promoting the social service work of the 
denominations, the churches, and the community. 

IV. Five Fundamental Objectives of the Social 
Service Commission 

1. The Christianizing of the Social Thought 

Let it not be forgotten that the social question is pri- 
marily one of social thought. It is a philosophy before 



SOCIAL SERVICE 89 

it is an activity. The modern socialists have seen this, 
and hence they have spent their lives in seeking to mold 
the thought life of men and communities. They have 
been social teachers rather than social workers in all our 
great centers. We cannot expect to have a social order 
based on Christian principles, so long as our social phil- 
osophy is made by men who hold materialistic principles. 
The times are appealing to the churches to inspire the 
thought of the social movement, and to reconstruct the 
economic code of modern society on that industrial and 
economic philosophy which is germinal to Christianity. 

2. The Christianizing of the Social Conscience 

The most imperative need of our day is to Christianize 
the social conscience. "The churches must train a new 
conscience prepared to meet the new temptations of a 
commercialized age. Business problems have developed 
faster than the moral character. Many a man has gone 
down to ruin because his bank account has grown beyond 
his moral capacity to use his money sanely and justly." 
What Christianity must do through the churches in 
order to save us is to evolve a conscience that will match 
the progress of trade, that will consecrate and command 
the getting and the spending of every dollar, and the 
organization of industry itself. 

3. The Christianizing of the Social Activities of 

THE Community 

Never before were so many people concerned with the 
amelioration of social conditions and social ideas; never 
before were there so many movements for human wel- 
fare. The relation which the Church should sustain to 



90 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

these organizations is very important. The National Con- 
ference of Social Workers meeting in New Orleans in 
April, 1920, stated this relation to be as follows: 

Inspiration. The Church should inspire all social 
movements with the Christian ideal and motive. 

Cooperation. With every good movement the Church 
should cooperate heartily. 

Pioneer. In all needy and undeveloped fields the 
Church is expected to lead the way. 

4. The Christianizing of the Social Relationships 

If the fundamental social relationships of life are 
wrong, all life will be poisoned at its source. That a 
more complete Christianization of all social relationships 
— that of husband and wife and parent and child ; that 
of employer and employed, buyer and seller ; that be- 
tween the citizen and the State; and lastly, that between 
one nation and another — is the paramount need of our 
day, cannot be questioned by those who know the present 
conditions of human society. 

5. The Christianizing of the Social Spirit 

No one will question that the nature and influence 
of our future society will be made by the spirit that 
dominates it. Society has a right to look to the churches 
for leadership in the realm of spirit and ideals. The 
churches, more than any other organization, have been 
charged with this responsibility. If society is to be Chris- 
tianized, if it is to be led by Christ, the churches must 
give leadership to the spirit of it. Christ's expectation 
for society can be realized only through the proclamation 



SOCIAL SERVICE 91 

by the churches of the Gospel which tells of His sacrifice 
for mankind, combined with the manifestation of the 
spirit of that sacrifice in the life of His disciples. The 
social life of our day can be made Christian only as it is 
filled with the spirit of the Cross. 

V. What Should Be the Program of the Social 
Service Commission? 

The program of the Social Service Commission should 
grow out of the conditions with which the churches are 
confronted. It should seek to meet the outstanding 
needs of the community in practical ways. We name 
here a few of the outstanding needs in every community 
which should be taken into consideration in forming the 
program. 

1. Conduct a Campaign of Education 

The Bible. First of all, the people must know what 
the Bible has to say about social service. The Bible is 
very clear and specific in its teaching upon this subject. 
This can be accomplished by insisting that the Sunday 
school lesson editors give more attention to the use of 
social service material, and by introducing supplementary 
studies which are now available into the various depart- 
ments of the Sunday school. 

Study Courses. The Commission should arrange for 
special study courses. Several good textbooks are avail- 
able for this purpose and more are in course of prepara- 
tion. In addition to a study of the general field of social 
service, special attention should be given to the study 
of the following phases of social reconstruction: 



92 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

a. The Indnstrwl Problem, which includes industrial 
justice, democratic industrial organization welfare work 
in factories, and the place of women in industry. 

6. The Race Question, including the problem of the 
Negro, the immigrant, the Indian, and the Mexican. 

c. Country Life Problems, as, the drift to the cit)', the 
tenant farmer, vacant churches, and lack of farm help 
and community ideals. 

d. Land Control, both in the city and the country. 

e. The Christian Home, and the care of children, in- 
cluding such matters as the family altar, housing con- 
ditions, child welfare, and divorce. 

f. The Problem of Food, its production, pure food, 
distribution, waste, high cost, home economics. 

g. National Health, dealing with physical education, 
marriage laws, social hygiene, effect of alcohol, drugs, 
nicotine. 

h. Education, or the socializing and Christianizing 
of our present educational system, together with the 
formation of a national program of moral and religious 
education. 

Books. A reading course should be established. This 
can be done by creating a church library on social service 
and by having each church member read at least one book 
every year. Small groups can meet from time to time 
for the discussion of the books read. 

The Open Forum. Many churches have the open 
forum. If the churches really desire to capture the 
thought of our day for Christ, they must use the method 
of open discussion. This has been abundantly success- 



SOCIAL SERVICE 93 

ful when properly organized with a good leader, a vital 
program, and proper financial backing. Many places 
have the community forum, organized by the churches 
or by Christian men and women in the community. 

Publicity. The work of education may find expression 
through advertising, the use of good posters, the wise 
distribution of free leaflets, and by using the local news- 
papers through editorials, open letters, and descriptions 
of programs and activities. The churches in every com- 
munity are doing valuable work for mankind. The un- 
fortunate thing about it often is that men outside of the 
churches are not aware of it. 

The Bulletin. The Commission should arrange for 
occasional use of the last page of the church bulletin 
for some striking sentences or announcements regarding 
social service. 

An Annual Conference. Every church should be rep- 
resented in an annual conference on social service. If 
possible every minister of the city, and selected lay rep- 
resentatives, should be present. 

2. Make a Survey of the Field 

The Commission should urge the churches to make a 
survey of every community or district or industrial area, 
locating the forces which are working for and against 
the child, the family, the school, the Church, and the 
State. Definite information regarding the social condi- 
tions is fundamental to any effective social service. The 
churches should know more about the needs of the com- 
munity than any other organization in the city. They 
should be headquarters not only for inspiration, but for 



94 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

reliable information. The information thus gained should 
be organized in the form of charts and maps for exhibit 
and education. Every federation should have a map of 
its city showing the distribution of population, parks, 
playgrounds, and all institutions making for either the 
building up or the breaking down of the community life. 
More detailed suggestions are given in the first chapter* 
of this book. 

The Pittsburgh Council of Churches observes two prin- 
ciples in survey work which are fundamental : 

a. Every community should make its own survey. 
This does not preclude the securing of expert guidance 
•from the outside. 

b. No metropolitan community can study its whole 
self at one time. The task is too great. A series of 
studies must be made by districts, or covering specific 
subjects of investigation. 

The desire of the commission is not to advocate 
a survey which is so difficult that for practical purposes 
it is prohibitive, but a working survey such as local 
churches can make and require for their work, and 
which gives promise of reasonable accuracy without 
being too voluminous. 

When churches undertake surveys it is important to 
work out the questionnaires with particular care, and 
to devise methods and organize the workers with initial 
thoroughness. The denominational secretaries on social 
service, the Commission on the Church and Social Serv- 
ice of the Federal Council, or, when extensive surveys 
are to be undertaken, the Department of Surveys 
of the Russell Sage Foundation, 130 East 22d Street, 



SOCIAL SERVICE 



vo 



New York City, will render assistance to churches and 
federations desiring more extended information. 

3. Establish Contacts with the Various Groups in 
THE Community 

These social contacts should be both fraternal and co- 
operative for the purpose of establishing friendly relations 
and mutual understanding of common problems, as, for 
instance, with the local labor unions, the Manufacturers* 
Association, or the Grange. Again there are times when 
definite service can be rendered, as in the Juvenile Court. 
With some organizations the relations will be official and 
cooperative, as in the case of the United Charities or 
community welfare societies. It is the business of the 
churches not to take sides in any partisan controversy, 
but to promote Christian friendship and sympathy, and 
to stand firmly for the application, to all problems, of 
the Christian principles of righteousness, justice, and 
love. The survey will reveal the existing groups in any 
community. They may be classified as follows: 



Corrective and Reform 
Moral Welfare 

The Juvenile Court 
Prohibition Enforcement 

Movement 
Law Enforcement Societies 
Local Sabbath Observance 

Committee 
Prisons — the Police Depart- 
ment 
Social Hygiene Society 

Social Welfare 

Board of Health 
United Charities 
Children's Aid Society 
Day Nurseries 



Hospitals 

Orphanage Homes 
Homes for the Aged 
The American Red Cross 

Commercial and Industrial 

Chamber of Commerce 
Labor Unions 
Manufacturers' Association 

Unassimilated Groups of 
People 

Foreign Speaking Groups 
Negro Population 
Indians 

Discontented Groups and 
Agitators 



96 



COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 



Religious Organizations 

Young Men's Christian 
Association 

Young Women's Christian 
Association 

The Salvation Army 

Woman's Christian Temper- 
ance Union 

Agricultural 

The Grange 

Cooperative Societies 

The Dairyman's League 

The Fruit Growers' Association 

The Society of Equity 

Civic Groups 

The City Government — the 
Mayor and Heads of Depart- 
ments 

Good Government Clubs and 
Leaders in All Parties 

Good Roads Association 

Housing and Sanitation 
Commissions 



The Park Board 
Civic Clubs 

Educational 

THE PRESS— Editors and 

Reporters 
Public Schools — . Board of 

Education, Principals, and 

Teachers 
The County Sunday School 

Association 
The Library Association 
The Daily Vacation Bible 

School Movement 
Night School for Foreigners 
The Boy Scout Movement 
Girl Scouts, etc. 

Community Betterment 

Social Settlements 
Play Ground Association 
Community Singing 
Community Moving Pictures 
Community' Improvement 
Association 



It will be seen at a glance that no one person could 
possibly make and maintain all of these contacts. The 
work should be divided. In every rural community 
the pastor should belong to the Grange or some other 
leading agricultural organization. In the city the churches 
should, as far as possible, identify themselves with the 
organized life of the community. The federation will 
find that many of its members are already related to one 
or more of these groups, in which case they may become 
its representatives. 

4. The Relation of the Social Service Commission 
TO These Groups 



a. There are three very important aspects of this prob- 



SOCIAL SERVICE 97 

km, which may be stated as follows: Certain dangers 
beset churches when they enter the field of social service. 
First there is the crusading method. This is vicious, ex- 
cept as it is used to initiate or establish permanent work 
or as an educational device coupled with permanent 
activity. As a rule, plans that work satisfactorily as a 
part of a program of wide cooperation are most effec- 
tual. The second danger is that of independent action. 
Churches are strongly tempted to undertake ambitious 
pieces of work that have not been properly forecast 
and organized. The Commission on Social Service 
ought to be so strong that it can forestall both 
these dangers by its inherent power, win to itself the 
allegiance of every socially minded and socially hearted 
church in the city. It is well in all reform movements 
to go to the leaders of the opposition and acquaint them 
with the purpose and plan of the movement and try to 
change their minds. When all such efforts fail, an out- 
and-out fight may be the only solution. Never be par- 
tisan, narrow, fanatical ; but never compromise the Chris- 
tian standards of morality, justice, and spirituality. 

b. We may set it down as a fundamental principle in 
cooperation that the Church need not necessarily stand 
for other organizations which are seeking to secure the 
same conditions; but the Church may work with any 
other society in so far as their purposes are similar. 
This will permit the Protestant Church to do many 
things in cooperation with Catholics and Jews or men 
who are not identified with any religious organiza- 
tion. There surely is sufficient work in the matter of 
social service for all well-wishers of human society to 



98 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

stand upon a common platform in so far as these matters 
are concerned. 

c. The third aspect of the problem of local relations 
is that of a growing tendency to see the work of the 
community as a whole. We wish at this point frankly 
to raise the question, Can the work of any Commission 
on Social Service in a given community be properly per- 
formed until the task is clearly conceived of in its en- 
tirety and the organization of the work adjusted accord- 
ingly ? 

No effort at social service can be effective without a 
community consciousness, a community ideal, and a com- 
munity program. There is hardly a problem of social 
service that does not aftect all of the people of a given 
localit}% whether or not they realize it. There is not 
an individual, the totality of whose relationships stops 
with his family, his business, or his church ; he is related 
to the entire life about him. 

There are also some very vital questions to be consid- 
ered. There is the problem of the relation between the 
various societies for the relief of poverty and the or- 
ganizations seeking to cure and prevent poverty. Just 
what relation should the Social Service Commission of 
the Council of Churches sustain to these various efforts 
and organizations? Another example is the effort of 
the community' not only to care for juvenile delinquents, 
but also to remove the causes of delinquency. There is 
a good demonstration of this phase of social service now 
being conducted in Youngstown, Ohio. The wery valu- 
able report of this work can be secured by writing to 



SOCIAL SERVICE 99 

the Children's Service Bureau, Community Corporation, 
Youngstown, Ohio. 

5. Cooperation in Community Betterment 

The churches are an integral part of the community 
life. Many churches are slowly dying because they are 
trying to live upon the community instead of for the 
community. They have no organized service, no vital 
program, no compelling ideal. In a very real sense the 
churches should be the community lighting plant and 
power house for the creation and distribution of the 
moral and spiritual energy which alone can sustain a 
healthy community life. 

Education. Every community should have the very 
best public schools, including the best type of building, 
trained Christian teachers, and medical and dental in- 
spection of the children. A public library with special 
provision for the children, reading circles, current topic 
clubs, lecture courses, musical entertainments, choral 
societies, and community singing classes increase the cul- 
ture and quicken the moral and religious ideals of the 
community. 

Housing. People can never be what God expects of 
them unless they live in clean, healthful homes with plenty 
of room, fresh air, and sunlight. The churches should 
create intelligent sentiment ' against bad housing condi- 
tions. Strangely enough this problem has become acute 
in some rural districts, where large groups of foreigners 
who go out to help harvest the crops are herded promis- 
cuously like cattle in cramped buildings. It has been 
estimated that for every 100,000 deaths among the well- 



100 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

tx>-do men, women, and children, there are 350,OCX) 
deaths among the same number of the poorly housed and 
poorly paid. There are four groups in the community 
responsible for this — the employers, the landlords, the 
city government, and the churches. Where there is no 
local housing association, the Commission on Social Serv- 
ice may secure guidance and help from the National 
Housing Association, 105 East 22nd St., New York City. 

Keeping the back yard of the home clean and the 
front yard planted with flowers quickens the community 
pride. In some places a prize has been ottered for the 
most beautiful flower garden. Along with this must go 
an increased interest in household economy and industry', 
such as canning clubs, home management, and serving. 

Sanitation and Health. A healthy community is far 
more likely to be a godly community than is one where 
filth and disease abound. Here the Social Service Com- 
mittee can cooperate with the Health Department. Good 
sewage, clean streets, pure water and milk, pure food, 
and the getting rid of flies and mosquitoes are all essen- 
tial. Public baths and parks are necessary in big cities. 
In addition to proper hospital facilities every community 
should have a house-to-house nurse and a physician to 
look after the needy. 

Civic Ri<}htcousncss. Good government is vital to the 
life of any community. This can exist only where there 
are clean, honest, public-spirited officials at the head of 
the government. It is the duty of the churches to raise 
up such men and women and then insist that men and 
women of this type be elected to oftice, irrespective of 
party affiliation. Whenever the issues involved are 



SOCIAL SERVICE 101 

moral, the voice of the churches should be heard The 
Social Service Committee can help create this moral 
sentiment, crjstallize it into intelligent public opinion, 
ascertain the exact facts in a given situation, and then 
bring public opinion to bear upon the solution. 

Recreation and Sociabilify. Very often the lax moral 
condition of a community is due not so much to the lack 
of recreation and sociability as to their existence under 
improper surroundings and influences. Every commun- 
ity should provide supervised playgrounds for children 
and orgaufzed athletics for the young people. In these 
matters the public school authorities and the federation 
may well act in cooperation. 

The social life of a community is a matter of grave 
concern in many places. Sometimes it is utterly lacking 
and again it exists, but in a bad form. The churches 
should provide healthy, interesting social activities. The 
home should be encouraged to become more and more 
the natural center of the social life of the young people. 
In almost every community the adults have their lodges 
or the Grange, but the recreational and social life of the 
young people has been sadly neglected. 

Child Welfare. Aside from the children with com- 
fortable homes, well-to-do intelligent parents, and the 
privileges of the Sunday school and public school, there 
are in every community children who must be looked 
after and who present special problems in social service. 
There are the neglected and ill-treated, the improperly 
fed, the orphaned, the illegitimate, the foundling, the 
diseased, the defective, and the delinquent. If there are 
not in the community organizations and institutions 



102 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

looking after these children properly, then the churches 
unitedly should take the initiative, arouse public senti- 
ment, disseminate knowledge, and actually care for all 
such children. Better still, they should seek to eliminate 
the causes that produce them. 

Cooperative Programs in Neighborhood Communities. 

A helpful service can be rendered if the churches of a 
given neighborhood through the Social Service Commis- 
sion enter into relationship with civic, municipal, social, 
educational, and other bodies, including the lodges and 
labor unions of that neighborhood. Through this co- 
operation it will be possible to develop a community 
consciousness and work out valuable programs for the 
neighborhood. 

In order to do this the following suggestions may be 
in order : 

a. Make a neighborhood community map of the city 
with the following principles in mind : 

(1) The neighborhood is of such a size that all neigh- 
bors are within walking distance of a natural cen- 
ter. 

(2) Neighbors are sufficiently homogeneous to make 
it possible to unite in common efforts. 

(3) It will usually be found that there is some past 
experience in unified enterprise which will serve 
as a basis for future cooperation. 

b. Utilize any existing neighborhood council composed 
of representatives of the neighborhood churches. Where 
none exists encourage the formation of such a council, 



SOCIAL SERVICE ^03 

timing the suggestion to meet some actual community 
need as it arises. 

c. Enlist this council in the study of the common 
church responsibility as related to obvious community 
needs. 

d. Secure from such religious organizations as the 
Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. 'A, and Salvation Army a state- 
ment of existing programs for neighborhood communi- 
ties. Set community church councils to studying and co- 
ordinating these programs with each other, with the pro- 
grams of the local churches, and with the plans of the 
community church. 

By efforts along these lines there can be a valuable 
conservation of effort and resources while performing 
certain vital community tasks. 

6. Help in the Reconstruction of Modern Industry 

Because the miost stupendous task in connection with 
social reconstruction is the Christianizing of industry, 
additional space has been allotted for its discussion. It 
should be the aim of every Social Service Department to 
make some genuine contribution toward the accomplish- 
ment of this task. The entire Christian program of social 
betterment is imperiled if the vast and deepening cleav- 
ages in the realm of industrial relationships are to remain. 
We would not be true to the challenge and opportunity 
of this hour in the history, of the Church if we did not 
recognize the seriousness of the moral issues growing 
out of the economic processes of our time. 

The Church is confronted today with one of the most 
elemental movements in human history — the movement 



104 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

of tlie working class toward a new status in society. The 
war has but deq^ened and broadened the current of de- 
mocrac}' which flows with the tides of this movement. 
The conflict in the arena of economic organization is only 
equalled by the confusion in the minds of men as they 
seek what is right and just. The very words righteous- 
ness and justice mean entirely different ideas to the con- 
flicting groups. Is it a censurable instinct in men, which 
leads them to ask the Church, the custodian of the treas- 
ury of Christian morality for her understanding of what 
justice means? The Church should be the first to see 
what justice demands, what honor requires, and what 
the Christian spirit dictates. 

The justice in which the Church believes and for which 
it must fearlessly stand is a justice which recognizes the 
sacredness of human life as the supreme end of industry, 
and never as a means. It recognizes human brotherhood 
as not only the spirit of individuals but the test of the 
organized system by which industry operates. It con- 
templates an equality of opportunity for the development 
of Christian personality as the birthright of every human 
being which neither industry nor any other phase of 
human relationship must impair. It enjoins the settle- 
ment of controverted issues by the meeting of minds and 
the conciliation of interests as in the presence of Christ, 
and not by force. This is the kind of justice in which 
the Church believes. 

The scales of this justice which the Church brings to 
the world movement in industry would change the 
status of labor from that of an employe to that of a 
partner. The Church is not prepared to advocate the 
employment of any particular industrial system, but it 



SOCIAL SERVICE 105 

does affirm the Christian character of the aim involved 
in this fundamental change in the relationship of industr}^ 
The relationships of employer and employe will be 
Christianized in that degree, that all those involved in 
industry share its responsibilities and rewards in the 
status of co-workers and not as class conscious groups of 
owners and managers on the one hand and of labor on 
the other. The time has come when the churches must 
make it perfectly clear to all men that they stand for an 
industrial order in which the Christian spirit shall flow 
unimpeded through an economic organization which is 
democratic, humane, and brotherly in its very structure. 

To that end we suggest the following next steps : 

a. Fraternal conferences of employes and employers, 
under Christian auspices. 

b. The widespread disseinination of the social ideals 
of the churches, as stated by the Federal Council. 

c The systematic organization of contacts between the 
members of industrial groups through various civic 
movements, such as community forums. 

d. Tlie study and encouragement of the cooperative 
movement as a preparation for and education in 
industrial democracy. 

e. We should encourage the experiments of men of 
good will who are seeking to share the control of 
industry with their employes. 

7. Disseminate the Social Ideals of the Churches 

The social ideals of the churches in relation to the 
probleins invol\^ in community betterment and social re- 



106 COMMUXITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

construction are concisely stated in the action taken by 
the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, 
at a special meeting held at Cleveland, May 6-8, 1919. 
They should have the widest possible study. 

Resolved: That we reaffirm the social platform adopted by 
the first Quadrennial in Chicago. 1912, and ratified by the Second 
Quadrennial in St. Louis, 1916. 

That the churches stand for — 

I. Equal rights and justice for all men in all stations of life. 

n. Protection of the family by the single standard of purity, 
uniform divorce laws, proper regulation of marriage, 
proper housing. 

HI. The fullest possible development of every child, especially 
by the provision of education and recreation. 

IV. Abolition of child labor. 

V. Such regulation of the conditions of toil for women as 
shall safeguard the physical and moral health of the com- 
munity. 

VI. Abatement and prevention of poverty, 

VII. Protection of the individual and society from the social, 
economic, and moral waste of the liquor traffic. 

VIII. Conservation of health. 

IX. Protection of the worker from dangerous machinery, oc- 
cupational diseases, and mortality. 

X. The right of all men to the opportunity for self-mainte- 
nance, for safeguarding this right against encroachments 
of every kind, for the protection of workers from the hard- 
ships of enforced unemploj-ment. 

XI. Suitable provision for the old age of the workers, and for 
those incapacitated by injury. 

XII. The right of employes and employers alike to organize ; 
and for adequate means of conciliation and arbitration in 
industrial disputes. 

XIII. Release from employment one day in seven. 



SOCIAL SERVICE 107 

XIV. Gradual and reasonable reduction of hours of labor to 
the lowest practicable point, and for that degree of, leisure 
for all which is a condition of the highest human life. 

XV. A living wage as a minimum in every industry, and for 
the highest wage that each industry can afford. 

XVI. A new emphasis upon the application of Christian prin- 
ciples to the acquisition and use of property, and for the 
most equitable division of the product of industry that 
can ultimately be devised. 

Facing the social issues involved in reconstruction, 

Resolved : That we affirm as Christian churches, 

1. That the teachings of Jesus are those of essential democ- 
racy and express themselves through brotherhood and the 
cooperation of air groups. We deplore class struggle and 
declare against all class domination, whether of capital or 
labor. Sympathizing with labor's desire for a better day 
and an equitable share in the profits and management of 
industry, we stand for orderly and progressive social re- 
construction instead of revolution by violence. 

2. That an ordered and constructive democracy in industry 
is as necessary as political democracy, and that collective 
bargaining^ and the sharing of shop control and manage- 
ment are inevitable steps in its attainment. 

3. That the first charge upon industry should be that of a 
wage sufficient to support an American standard of living. 
To that end we advocate the guarantee of a minimum wage, 
the control of unemployment through government labor 
exchanges, public works, land settlement, social insurance, 
and experimentation in profit sharing and cooperative 
ownership. . 

4. We recognize that women played no small part in the 
winning of the war. We believe that they should have 
full political and economic equality with equal pay for 
equal work, and a maximum eight-hour day. We 
declare for the abolition of night work by women, and the 
abolition of child labor ; and for the provision of adequate 
safeguards to insure the moral as well as the physical 
health of the mothers aijd children of the race. 



108 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

VI. What Should B« the Organization of the Social 
Service Commission through Which the Federation 

Functions? 

1. The Social Service Commission of the Federa- 

tion 

The Commission should be composed of the strongest 
men and women in the churches, who can make social 
service effective and attractive. Everything will depend 
upon the caliber and character of this Commission, and 
hence great care should be taken in selecting it The 
size of the Commission should be determined by the condi- 
tions, also the organization of the Commission itself. It 
should not be overorganized, but there should be sufficient 
organization within the Commission to make its work 
effective and efficient. It is well in the beginning not to 
have more than two main committees. Others may be 
created as the work develops. We would suggest that 
all newly organized federations study the plan of organi- 
zation adopted by existing federations, especially the 
federations of Louisville, Kentucky ; Baltimore, Md. ; 
Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Mich., and Pittsburgh, Penna. 

2. The Denominational Social Service Commis- 

sions 

Most of the denominations now have either a com- 
mission or a committee concerned with social service, 
and these commissions ought to be used to the utmost. 
While it is true that social service is no longer a de- 
nominational matter, nevertheless there are lines of 
approach to social service problems which can best be 
reached through the denominational agencies. While it 



SOCIAL SERVICE 109 

is true that social service is no longer a denominational 
matter, nevertheless the aid of denominational agencies 
is often indispensable to a federation in securing the sup- 
port of individual churches; especially is this true where 
the federation includes well-marked ecclesiastical juris- 
dictions. 

3. The Sociv^l Service Commission of the Federal 

COUNCTL 

This Commission is fully organized with an Executive 
Secretary and a Research Department and is ready at all 
times to render every possible assistance. Application 
should be made to this Commission for the Social Service 
Year Book which contains valuable information. The 
Social Service Commission of the Federal Council of the 
Churches of Christ in America is equipped to assist the 
federations, on the field, in outlining and setting up their 
social programs, and to furnish needed information 
through its research department. The Commission pre- 
fers always to work in cooperation with the denomina- 
tional agencies. 

4. The Local Church Social Service Committee 

Every church should be encouraged to have a Social 
Service Committee and these committees should be im- 
pressed with their obligation for the social conditions in 
their community or neighborhood. 

5. The Women of the Churches and Community 

Social Service 

The women of the churches have taken as yet very 
little active part in local social service movements, ex- 



110 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

cept as they are individually members on boards and 
committees of charitable societies. They have entered 
the field of social service mainly in distant communities 
through their home and foreign missionary work. Here 
is a great latent force which must be awakened and for 
which instruments of effective expression are to be 
formed. The women themselves must work out the prob- 
lem with such assistance, especially initial assistance, as 
the federation may render, in order to know the whole 
of the community problem and bear their share of the 
responsibility as Christian citizens. It is recommended 
that churches elect women delegates to the council of the 
federation. 

6. A Rural Department of Social Service 

As the organization and cooperation of rural churches 
advance, and neighborhood, township, and county fed- 
erations of churches are formed, or, in villages and small 
towns where there are two or more churches, joint 
action is secured by a simple form of committee organi- 
zation, the necessity of a rural department of social 
service or a committee on social service will at once 
arise. The principles to be applied are not essentially 
different from those used in urban centers. The prob- 
lems involved, such as cooperation with social agencies, 
relations to the local and state authorities, industrial 
and labor problems, recreation, public health, social 
hygiene, crime, and delinquency, are all present but in 
different forms. They require the same study, the same 
principles of the survey, the same collective action. In 
the country most social conditions are not so acute as in 
the city; but in other regards the need is greater because 



SOCIAL SERVICE 111 

of the lack of organization and the comparative poverty 
of social life. Rural areas oflFer, therefore, fascinating 
fields for service, and they put a premium upon min- 
isters and laymen who have social vision and organizing 
skill, and who will consecrate themselves to the enrich- 
ment of rural life. 

Summary 

The Church today looks out upon a confused, but an 
aspiring world. All mankind wants a better, kinder, and 
more just society. Never was the Church confronted 
with such an opportunity to cooperate in helping make 
the world in which we live Christian. The Social Service 
Commission of each City Federation is admirably adapted 
to make a large and enduring contribution to the re- 
building of the social order. The program here outlined 
is brief but it is constructive and vital, and when under- 
taken by leaders who possess vision, courage, and conse- 
cration, the results will be assured. 

Bibliography 

Carlton, Frank T., Organized Labor in American His- 
tory. N. Y. D. Appleton & Co., 1920. $2.50. 

CoE, George A., A Social Theory of Religious Education. 
N. Y. Scribner's. 1917. $1.50. 

Committee on the War and the Religious Outlook, 
The Church and Industrial Reconstruction. N. Y. 
Association Press. 1920. $2.00. 

DiFFENDORFER, Ralph E., The Cliurch and the Commun- 
ity. N. Y. Council of Women for Home Missions. 
1920. $.75. 



112 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

Ell WOOD, Charles A., The Social Problem. N. Y. 
Macmillan (1919 edition). $175. 

McIvER, R. M., Labor in the Changing World. N. Y. 
E. P. Button. 1919. $2.00. 

Marsh, Daniel L., The Challenge of Pittsburgh. N. Y. 
Missionary Education Movement. 1917. $.60. 

Mecklin, J. M., Introduction to Social Ethics. N. Y. 

Harcourt, Brace & Howe. 1920. $3.75. 
Rauschenbusch, Walter, A Theology for the Social 

Gospel. N. Y. Macmillan, 1917. $1.50. 
VoGT, Paul, The Church and Country Life. N. Y. 

Missionary Education Movement. $2.00. 

Ward, Harry F., The Gospel for a Working World. N. 
Y. Missionary Education Movement. 1918. $.60. 

Watson, Frank D., Social Work with Families. Phila- 
delphia. American Academy of Political and Social 
Science. 1918. $1.00. 



CHAPTER V 

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

The Commission on Religious Education was asked 
**to bring to the Convention a program of united Chris- 
tian effort for the Church." In addressing itself to this 
task, the Commission was mindful of the fact that during 
the last three years a rapid movement has been taking 
place for the organization of local federations of churches, 
until now upwards of forty cities are thus organized and 
provided with employed secretaries. How is the inter- 
church council or federation to relate itself to these other 
denominational and interchurch agencies and programs, 
and precisely what share is it to have in shaping and in 
putting into effect a community program of religious 
education? That is the problem. 

In view of situations so complex, so different from 
each other in different communities, and so rapidly 
changing, and in view of the fact that the Commission 
was asked to determine standards and methods of pro- 
cedure for an element of community life which is almost 
wholly new, it seemed necessary as a first step to gather 
such experience as might be available from those who are 
now facing the problem of religious education as secre- 
taries of local councils of churches. What are the ele- 
ments in the problem, as they see it? 

The Commission accordingly sent out to the various 
federation secretaries, and to others who might be pre- 
sumed to have some experience of community problems, 
a series of questions, followed a little later by a second 

113 



114 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

series, in which effort was made to think through together 
the difficulties which present themselves to those who, in 
the interest of closer cooperation and increased efficiency, 
are seriously concerned in harmonizing the various plans 
for the religious education of the community. 

A very gratifying number of replies to these questions 
was received, a perusal of which revealed the following 
facts : 

1. The presence already in most communities of a 
considerable number of agencies for religious education 
responsible to different authorities, local, state, or national, 
denominational, interdenominational, or undenomination- 
al, each promoting its own separate program of education. 

2. A marked tendency to think of religious education 
in the local community mainly in terms of the organiza- 
tion with which one happens to be officially connected, 
such as the local Council of Churches, Sunday School As- 
sociation, Young Men's Christian Association, and Young 
Women's Christian Association. 

3. A tendency on the part of secretaries to ignore those 
local agencies and programs of education to which the 
Church is not directly related and for which it does not 
consider itself officially responsible. 

4. Little evidence of any attempt impartially to ap- 
praise the value of various types of religious educational 
work. 

5. A general recognition of the need of closer correla- 
tion of the educational programs of existing agencies. 

6. A tendency to advocate expedients rather than to 



HHMM 



EVERY FEDERATION 
SHOULD: 

Formulate its Educational 
Policy intheli^htof 
Local conditions and to 
meet local needs 

Coordinate its Religious 
Educational Forces in a 
Comnnon Plan for a 
Connnnon Task 

HAVE YOU 

A Clean-Cut Religious 
Educational Program 



116 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

analyze a situation in the light of fundamental principles ; 
to apply remedies rather than to deal with causes. 

7. A general failure to study the whole situation and 
to help in planning a religious education program so as 
to meet community-wide needs, and consequent failure 
to meet these needs adequately. 

8. The inability of any one agency to comprehend the 
task of religious education for the community as a whole. 

9. The lack of any educational policy on the part of 
most local federations. (In one instance only did an 
interchurch federation send in a carefully formulated 
statement of its aims in religious education and its pro- 
posed method of procedure.) 

10. Frequent lack of constructive suggestion from 
writers who gave the results of their individual thinking, 
and, on the other hand, most valuable suggestions from 
writers whose reports embodied the results of group 
thinking and discussion in a conference of local leaders. 

In view of these facts, it seemed clearly presumptuous 
for a commission sitting in New York to undertake to 
formulate a program or standardize procedure for secre- 
taries of interchurch federations who are facing, in their 
respective communities, widely different conditions. It 
is a matter of grave doubt in the minds of the Commis- 
sion as to whether it is possible to frame any one standard 
program of religious education that will apply to all com- 
munities. The most that can be done is to indicate the 
procedure by which a department of religious education 
in a local interchurch council or federation may formulate 
its educational policy in the light of local conditions and 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 117 

to meet local needs. Such a plan of procedure, to be of 
value, should be made by those who are to carry it out. 

The report of the Commission on Religious Education 
therefore differs in character and method from other 
reports presented to the Convention. It does not present 
a standardized program or "blue print" to be followed 
in the organization of interchurch councils. It does not 
even summarize the individual judgments of members 
of the Commission. To have followed this course, the 
Commission would have been obliged to condense into 
the briefest compass the statements of principle and 
method which are already easily available to the earnest 
student in several well known handbooks.^ The Commis- 
sion felt that in view of the existing complexity and 
delicacy of the educational situation in most communities, 
the variety of conditions in different communities, and 
the rapid changes taking place in the whole field of re- 
ligious education, it would render a greater service by 
raising the specific community problems which every sec- 
retary of a local council of churches must meet and by 
suggesting a method of approach to and attack upon 
these problems; and that the time of its report at the 
Convention would best be taken by discussion in which 
the wide experience of those present would be brought to 
bear upon the problems. 

The report, therefore, assumes the importance of re- 
ligious education. It presents no argument on this point. 
It likewise assumes the existence in the local community 
of various agencies charged with responsibility for formu- 



^As examples of such books the following may be mentioned: Athearn, 
"A National System of Education"; Coe, "A Social Theory of Religious 
Education"; Cope, "Education for Democracy." Each of these contains 
an extensive bibliography. 



118 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

lating programs of religious education and the more or 
less general use of such authorized programs. The report 
does not express a judgment regarding either agencies or 
programs. It defends no theory of religious education. 
It advocates no specific method of organization. Its 
purpose is to lead secretaries and others who may be 
facing the community task to think — independently, in- 
ductively, and constructively. It indicates points of con- 
fusion that may exist in any field, and issues that are 
likely to arise and demand a settlement. In short, it offers 
not a series of conclusions which are to be regarded as 
'final and authoritative, but a method by which local sec- 
retaries may sit down with all persons immediately con- 
cerned, study the local situation in all its bearings, and 
arrive at their own conclusions. 

The Commission has, therefore, followed this method 
in the preparation of its report. Not only has the Com- 
mission as a whole met several times, but the Executive 
Committee has held seven conferences, and through its 
secretary has conducted an extensive correspondence with 
the fifty or more secretaries of interchurch federations 
or councils and with a selected group of other persons 
interested in religious education. In addition to these 
preliminary investigations and conferences, the Commis- 
sion spent a day at Cleveland in advance of the Conven- 
tion, carefully restudying the problem in the light of the 
reports of the other Commissions which had not been 
previously available. During the first day of the Conven- 
tion its members listened attentively to the discussions 
on other reports. Throughout all of this preliminary 
study, the Commission consistently adhered to its pur- 
pose, viz : to analyze in the most painstaking fashion the 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 119 

community problem of religious education from the point 
of view of the interchurch secretary, to locate the major 
issues, to discover the exact points where differences of 
practice or conviction are likely to occur, and to state and 
restate these issues until they should be formulated so 
clearly in topics for discussion that no time would be lost 
through irrelevant remark or argument. In short, the 
Commission proposed nothing less than to inject the com- 
munity problem into the Convention itself, for general 
discussion by the several hundred delegates priesent. 
It is, in fact, their problem and its solution, so far as a 
solution has been arrived at in this report, is their solu- 
tion. The Commission placed at the disposal of the dele- 
gates the results of its own group thinking in its analysis 
of the issues involved. Further than this, it refrained 
from indicating what conclusions must be reached. No 
one, not even the members of the Commission, had any 
preconceived notion as to what conclusions would be 
reached. The chairman of the session confined himself 
to the task of writing upon the blackboard, one by one, 
the questions for discussion, recording the suggestions as 
given consecutively from the floor, and briefly summariz- 
ing conclusions when the discussion seemed to have ex- 
hausted the experience of those present in respect to a 
particular group of questions. 

There were three reasons for the use of this method 
in preparing this report : The Commission had a convic- 
tion, first, that the results of such group thinking are 
more reliable than individual opinions and convictions 
formedr^ alone ; second, that people do not act on other 
people's opinions or standardized solutions, at least not 
as intelligently and effectively as when they themselves 



120 COMMUNITY PROGIL\MS FOR CHURCHES 

share in formulating them; and, third, that no single 
standardized solution of so complicated a problem could 
be worked out, but this method is the one which every 
local council of churches will need to follow in working 
out its local program. The Commission felt that the 
application of this discussion method by the Convention 
itself would prove the best possible demonstration of its 
value — a judgment which seemed to be confirmed by the 
hearty applause of the Convention at the close of the 
session. 

For the questions worked out in advance by the Com- 
mission and used by the chairman of the discussion, see 
pages 129-136. There, also, will be found an epitome 
of the discussion. 

The conclusions actually arrived at in the group think- 
ing of the convention delegates during their discussions 
may be summarized as follows : 

Summary of Conclusions 
1. The Problem Analyzed 

In the communities represented, the following agencies 
are to be found, all concerned in some way with religious 
education : Sunday schools, Scout organizations, daily 
vacation Bible schools, Protestant Teachers' Association, 
denominational colleges, community' schools of religion, 
homes, parish schools, Christian Associations (Y. M. and 
Y. W.), the local interchurch council or federation, the 
women's missionary societies. Weekday Religious Educa- 
tion Committee, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 
Saturday craft schools, young people's societies, parochial 
schools, public schools — nearly a score of agencies, in 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 121 

the aggregate. Although these may not all be present 
in any one community, yet many are to be found in all 
communities, and the presence of so large a number of 
agencies, promoting independent programs, is the first 
factor in the secretary's problem of community religious 
education. 

2. Need of Correlation 

In the programs of these agencies are to be noted the 
following objectives : Bible study, heroes and heroism, 
mission study, history, morals, social morality, temper- 
ance, social service, methods of church work, church loy- 
alty, patriotism, worship, life problems, vocational guid- 
ance, organized recreation, child welfare, Americaniza- 
tion, international friendship, psychology, science of 
teaching. Not an exhaustive list, but suggesting the need 
of correlation and cooperation in curriculum'building. 

3. Overlapping and Neglect 

a. The following groups are mentioned as being ac- 
tually touched by the independent activities of the several 
agencies: Church children, some non-church children, 
some non-English-speaking persons, employed boys, 
working girls, shop workers, public school children, some 
adults, church women, college young women, parents, 
Sunday school teachers, ministers, officers and administra- 
tors of religious education. How many of these several 
groups are being influenced in any given community, and 
how many are wholly or largely outside the aggregate 
influence of all agencies, is, of course, the vital question 
for every secretary. 

b. Some idea as to the extent of the neglected area is 



122 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

indicated in this list: Children of homes only nominally 
Protestant, children under five and over twelve years of 
age, children of working people in industrial communities, 
foreign-born mothers, apartment house residents, immi- 
grant groups, children of the rich, rural and migrant 
groups — surely an impressive showing! 

4. The Teaching Aim of the Churches 

Turning now from conditions as they are to consider 
what ought to be the objective of the churches, running 
through all these programs of all agencies, the broad 
purpose may be summed up in the statement: To pro- 
duce Christlike character in the individual; to bring in 
the Kingdom of God, in the community and in the world 
at large. More specifically, this involves familiarity with 
the mind and personality of Christ, with the Bible, under- 
standing and acceptance of the Kingdom of God, the 
assuming of a personal relation to God, the development 
and acceptance of moral standards, a Christian community 
consciousness, an attitude of reverence for and obedience 
to law and government, an attitude of community co- 
operation, a sense of responsibility, an appreciation of 
the Church and of worship, a sense of stewardship, a 
responsiveness to conscience, the application of moral 
principles to conduct, fidelity to duty, a self -directed and 
controlled life. 

Teaching and Conduct. In the production of this 
type of character, the plan of the educator should not 
contemplate such predetermination of response and action 
as would rob the child of freedom and initiative. It is 
the task of the educator, and of the Church, to bring to 
him the accumulations of past experience in such manner 




RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 123 

as to aid him in determining for himself his conduct in 
respect to concrete situations as they arise. 

5. Need of a Common Program 

In order to facilitate cooperation in religious education 
between the various community agencies there are needed 
a common objective, a standardized educational program 
covering the year and formulated in terms of the child's 
experience, and trained leadership, 

a. The Product of Joint Effort. Such a program is 
not merely the sum of the separate programs of the sev- 
eral agencies. It is rather a unified common program of 
religious education for the community. In it the activ- 
ities of all will be completely correlated in the interest of 
economy and efficiency, and provision will be made for 
the attainment of every legitimate objective of any single 
agency, such as missions or social service. Such a pro- 
gram is the product of the joint effort of all community 
agencies concerned with religious education. 

b. The Unifying Principle. The unifying principle of 
such a program is primarily the welfare of the individual 
himself, his usefulness and development, realizing, how- 
ever, that this will only be secured when the ideal of such 
development regards him as a child of God, a religious 
and social being. 

c. Place of Activity in the Educational Program. In 
such a program of religious education activity will hold 
a central place; inasmuch as there can be "no impression 
without expression," no teaching apart from conduct. 
The knowledge of Jesus Christ must be experimental and 



124 COMMUNITY PROGR.\MS FOR CHURCHES 

practical; life is whole; religion cannot be divorced from 
actual living. Service gives point, meaning, and motive 
to teaching. 

6. The Work of the Council of Churches 

a. The function of the local council of churches in re- 
spect to religious education in the community is fourfold: 

( 1 ) To conduct a survey. 

(2) To take the initiative in forming a community 
council of religious education to effect fundamental 
correlation of agencies and the working out of a 
common program. 

(3) To evaluate agencies and programs now in the 
field. 

(4) To become the voice of the churches in respect to 
their common educational task. 

b. In Cooperation. For groups now inadequately 
reached, the local inter church council should seek to work 
through existing agencies, suggesting specific tasks to one 
or another as opportunity- offers. 

c. On Its Own Initiative. Whether it should have a 
distinct program of its own, or just what distinctive part 
it should have in the common program, will depend upon 
the local situation. 

7. The Cooperating Agencies 

The local council of churches has a right to look for co- 
operation in working out the common program to the 
various agencies already in the field. Each agency will 
profit by the perfecting of cooperative relationships. 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 125 

Application to a Local Council of Churches 

The Commission feels that the method followed in the 
Convention is the one which a local council of churches 
can use. 

This Commission Is convinced that local councils of 
churches are in a position to render a distinct and timely 
service to their communities by bringing together for 
purposes of community study those persons and agen- 
cies which are in any way concerned with or inter- 
ested in religious education. Just what agencies and per- 
sons are to be thus assembled in any given instance will 
depend upon local conditions. The Commission of the 
local council of churches will move carefully in making 
up the list of such agencies, guarding against the danger 
of being identified with faddists or propagandists, on the 
one hand, or of giving its indorsement merely to some 
partial existing program, on the other. It must be dis- 
tinctly understood that the council of churches will con- 
cern itself with nothing partisan or partial. It is inter- 
ested in the community as such, and while it has no 
program of its own to urge, it seeks, through cooperation 
of all agencies of all the churches, an adequate program 
of religious education for the whole community. 

Having determined, through careful inquiry and coun- 
sel with denominational and educational leaders, the per- 
sonnel of the group which is to make a study of the 
local problem, it will then be the task of the Commission 
on Religious Education to make painstaking preparation 
for this group study. How this should be done has been 
indicated in what has already been said in describing the 



126 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

preparation for the report of this Commission, but the 
main points are again summarized here: 

a. The first secret of success through discussion is the 
careful preHminary study of the problem, the location of 
the real issues, and their statement in clear question form 
in advance of the meeting. Here is where church meet- 
ings, adult Bible classes, and many other so-called deliber- 
ative assemblies often fail. No one has taken the trouble 
to make sufficient preparation. The remarks run off on 
minor points, people exploit individual hobbies, issues are 
confused, and the discussion gets nowhere. No other 
result can be expected. With no method for determining 
the topics for discussion, under the main subject, each 
person talks about what happens to be in his own mind 
and the discussion scatters. There is no real facing of 
issues and thinking through to conclusions. Individual 
thinking is just as lacking in result as group thinking, if 
this haphazard method is followed. 

b. A second secret of success is order and progress in 
the questions themselves. The questions do not represent 
several unrelated topics. In the case of the Convention 
the first three questions consisted simply of a report on 
the situation in religious education as it now exists in 
the various communities represented. These were in- 
tended, by calHng forth an expression of concrete experi- 
ence, to break open the problem and make it live to the 
assembly, so as to become the basis for fundamental 
thinking. The next three questions, 4, 5, and 6, with 
sub-questions, formed the basis for such thinking together 
toward a solution of the problems found locally in re- 
ligious education, without reference at this point to the 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 127 

part which a local council of churches might take in such 
solution. The next three questions, 6, 7, and 8, dealt 
with this phase of the problem more specifically and led 
up to the real purpose of the hour — namely, to discover 
the distinctive place of the local council of churches in 
the local program of religious education. Questions 8 
and 9 concerned the actual steps which a local council 
might take in inaugurating the program determined upon. 
These had to do with action, the policies and methods by 
which each local council of churches is to carry out its 
program. Because of the wide difference between various 
localities, this would largely have to be handled by the 
local secretaries after reaching home. 

c. A third secret of success is the method used in the 
discussion itself. A chairman, who has studied how to 
handle discussions and who has had experience in pre- 
siding at discussional meetings, should be selected. He 
acts strictly as chairman, never letting his own viewpoint 
be known and never doing anything to bias the discussion 
in any way. His business is to state the questions and 
preside over the discussion. Adequate blackboard space 
should be available. The questions are not given out in 
advance. This would tend to scatter the thinking. In- 
stead, each question, as it is put before the group for 
discussion, is written clearly on the blackboard so as to 
be plainly in view of the assembly. As the discussion on 
each question proceeds, the chairman writes upon the 
blackboard in a phrase or a sentence the main point con- 
tributed to the discussion by each speaker. At the close 
of the discussion of each question, time is given to glance 
back over the suggestions which have been made as they 
were epitomized on the blackboard, and the chairman 



128 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

verbally summarizes the general conclusions reached, or 
recognizes in his summary the major differences in the 
opinions held. 

By this method, there is opportunity actually for the 
group to think together. Each person's contribution stim- 
ulates further thinking and helps its progress. There is 
opportunity to gather from the group a variety of ex- 
perience and viewpoint for the solution of the problem ; 
but, as in all good thinking, each contribution bears 
directly on the problem in hand and helps toward a group 
conclusion as to the solution. 

In order that the method may be clearly set forth, the 
Commission appends to its report a more complete 
account of the Convention session, in which are indicated 
the nature of the Chairman's leadership, his use of care- 
fully phrased questions, the responses from the floor as 
noted upon the blackboard, and the Chairman's sum- 
maries of discussion. 

Epitome of Convention Discussion 

Because of the limitations of time certain questions 
had to be omitted in the morning session and were con- 
sidered in a supplementary session in the afternoon. This 
summary includes both the morning and afternoon dis- 
cussions. 

In opening the discussion the Chairman explained that 
his purpose was not to secure any particular predeter- 
mined answers ; but to give opportunity for the freest and 
most open-minded discussion of the problems. Further, 
he said he was using questions which had been carefully 
worked out by the Commission and was simply acting 
as the Commission's representative. 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 



129 



Question 1. What agencies in your community are con- 
ducting programs of Religious Education? 

Blackboard Epitome of Discussion 



Sunday Schools 

Young Women's Christian As- 
sociation 

Scouts 

Daily Vacation Bible Schools 

Protestant Teachers' Assn., 
N. Y. 

Denominational Colleges 

Community Schools of Religion 

Homes 

Parish Schools 

Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation 



Local Federation 

Women's Missionary Societies 

Weekday Religious Education 

Committee 
Woman's Christian Temperance 

Union 
Saturday Crafts Schools 
Young People's Societies 
Parochial Schools 
State Schools (i. e. Public 

Schools) 



Question 2. What is included in these programs of Re- 
ligious Education? 

Blackboard Epitome of Discussion 



Bible Study 

Science of Teaching 

Mission Study 

Social Service 

International Friendship 

Americanization 

Church Loyalty 

Psychology 

Patriotism 

History 



Temperance 

Social Morality 

Child Welfare 

Life Problems and Vocations 

Methods of Church Work 

Morals 

Worship 

Organized Recreation 

Heroes and Heroism 

Service 



Question 3. a. Who are now being reached by these pro- 
grams? 

Blackboard Epitome of Discussion 



(Some) Church Children* 

S. S. Teachers 
(Some) Non-Church 

Children (?)* 
(Some) Non-English Speaking 
Children* 



Employed Boys 
Shop Workers 
Public School Children 
Some Adults 
Ministers 
Working Girls 



* Question mark because of query from house as to correct- 
ness ; "Some" was added from house because statement otherwise 
considered too sweeping. 



130 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

Church Women College Young Women 

Officers and Administrators of Parents 
Religious Education 

b. What groups are largely unreached by any program? 

Blackboard Epitome of Discussion 

Children of Nominally Protestant Homes 

Children of over Twelve Years of Age 

Children of Working People in Industrial Community 

Foreign-born Mothers of Little Children 

Children under Five Years of Age 

Apartment House Residents 

Immigrant Groups 

Children of Wealthy 

Distinctly Rural Groups 

Migrant Groups 

Verbal Summary 

The Chairman of the discussion rapidly reviewed the Black- 
board Epitome under the first three questions. 

Question 4. What should we seek to accomplish in the life 
of the community through these Religious Education pro- 
grams? 

Blackboard Epitome of Discussion 

Development of Virile Christian Character 

Christian Community Consciousness and Responsibility 

Familiarity with the Bible 

Worship 

Reverence for and Obedience to Law and Government 

Community Cooperation 

Moral Standards 

Understanding and Acceptance of Kingdom of God 

Leadership 

Development of Christian Attitudes toward People and Races 

Appreciation of the Church 

Stewardship 

Personal Relation to God 

Conscience 

Personal Responsibility for Government 

Personal Evangelism 

Applied Ethics and Duties 

Fact, Mind, and Personality of Christ 

Self-Controlled Life 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 131 

Summary of Various Objectives 

(As given above, suggested from the floor) 

Christlike Character in the Individual and Bringing in the 
Kingdom of God in the Community and in the World. 

a. Do we expect to secure certain kinds of predetermined 
action, or do we expect to help children, young people, and 
adults meet their problems of Christian living as they arise? 

(No material written on blackboard) 

Verbal Summary 
(Given by Chairman after several had spoken) 

The sense of the group thus far in the discussion is that there 
are certain things which are predetermined and should be brought 
to the child, particularly children under twelve years of age, but 
that after that age we should hope that they would use this 
earlier training in acting for themselves. 

When the Chairman gave opportunity for objection or addition 
to the group thinking, the following was added from the floor ; 

Voice from Floor: I think that is all right, but it depends on 
what you are going to predetermine. If the thing that you have 
in mind is that you are developing a character — all right ; but see 
that you give the child a chance to develop it, and understand 
that you can't develop a character in anybody else on earth. If 
we will put before the child the situations of life, suggest the 
principles by which they can be met and solved, and then trust 
the child within the range of his experience and environment to 
reach better conclusions than we can reach for him, I believe we 
shall strike pretty near the truth. (Applause.) By that process 
the character that is formed will work itself and doesn't have to 
have a policeman standing over it. 

General approval of this modification was evident, and so recog- 
nized by the Chairman in final summary on this question. 

Chairman: You may care to think about this related question, 
which we shall not have time to discuss. 

b. What difference, if any, exists between the purpose of 
religious publicity and propaganda, and that of Religious 
Education? 

Question 5. How can we work most eifectively and intelli- 
gently to reach the results to be accomplished by a Religious 
Education program? 



132 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

Blackboard Epitome of Discussion 

Standardized Program Objective, as a Test 

Program for the Church Year Program for the Child 
Emphasis on Trained Leaders 

The Chairman allowed the discussion on the main question to 
continue for only a few minutes and then introduced a sub- 
question. 

Chairman: Will you discuss this question which is already be- 
fore us in this assembly? Each Commission has brought in a 
program of religious education in connection with its report: 
Missions, International Good Will, Social Service, and others. 
The question is : 

a. Shall we do better by separate Religious Education pro- 
grams in missions, social service, evangelism, etc., or by 
working out a unified program of Religious Education in 
which these take their appropriate place? Why? 

V Blackboard Epitome of Discussion 

Correlation of Agencies 
Unified Program 

Additional Comment from Floor 

One Speaker: That will depend a good deal on a distinction 
which you might draw; for instance, in missionary education, 
between missionary education that tends to build character and 
missionary education that is in the nature of publicity or propa- 
ganda in the Church at large. There can be no question, I 
think, in any of our minds that the former belongs as an integral 
part of religious education and it should arise in that Commis- 
sion. The same is true of social service. But I believe that it 
can best be solved by having on the Commission on Religious 
Education a missionary education expert who is also on your 
Commission on Missions. Let there be a correlation and unifica- 
tion of work by this cross-membership. The same is true of your 
Commission on Social Service. 

Another Speaker: May I suggest in reference to what has been 
said that there needs to be considerable care that the correlation 
of missions and social service is complete enough to avoid a 
kind of distinction between education and publicity propa- 
ganda that may be fatal to both. For instance, there are very 
large types of missionary propaganda that are^ distinctly un- 
christian in their results, such as presenting the idea of sending 
the Gospel to the heathen with the idea that the heathen are 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 133 

poor, degraded beasts that we can only feel superior to and pity, 
instead of cultivating the attitude of Christian respect and world 
friendship. 

We can also lay so much emphasis upon the amount of money 
that a child shall give that we won't care anything at all about 
how he gets it, and it won't be surprising if he grows up to be a 
man or woman who says, "Anything for dividends." 

Verbal Summary (by Chairman) 

I wonder if I sense the mind of the group, that you feel that 
we shall best reach the results by a correlation of agencies and 
by a unified program in which missions, social service, and other 
items shall take their respective places, but that you recognize 
the place of special publicity of the right sort in connection with 
missions, social service, etc., provided that such publicity is on 
a Christian basis. The group has also drawn the distinction be- 
tween education and publicity. 

b. If there is to be a unified program, what is to be the 
unifying principle? 

Blackboard Epitome (Reached after many modifications and 
additions suggested from the floor) 

Welfare, usefulness, and development of the individual him- 
self, as a Christian, as a child of God, as a religious and social 
being. 

Verbal Summary (by Chairman) 

We have the suggestion that the unifying principle is the in- 
dividual or person himself, his welfare, his effectiveness, his 
development in relationship to God and as a social being. 

c. What place should activities and service hold in a pro- 
gram of Religious Education? 

Blackboard Epitome of Discussion 

No Impression without Expression 

Absolute Necessity Demands Service 

Incentive for Service 

Service to Give Outlet for Teaching 

Service to Clinch Meaning — Teaching 

Service as an Introduction to Teaching and Interpretation 

Objective of the Teaching 

Bring Truth and Conduct Together 

Make Life Whole rather than Divide Religious from the Rest. 



154 COMMUNITY PROGR-\MS FOR CHURCHES 

SUMM.^SY 

Practical Knowledge of Jesus Christ Not Possible without 
Activities. Best Method of Teaching. Doing Is Learning. 

Veelbal SuM3itARY (bv Cnairman) 

There seems to be a con^-iction that the activity- is not some- 
thing added on, or just an outlet, but that it is a fundamenta] 

part, or basis, or undergirding of the whole matter. 

Question 6. What should a local council of churches do in 
relation to existing programs and agencies of Religious Eidu- 
cation? 

What should a local council do in regard to this correlation 
and unification of programs, which you have suggested? 

May we ask three specinc sub-questicns : 

a. What is the business of the local council in relation to 
denominational or other programs already in the field? 

You summarized them in your opening discussion, as a whole 
series of programs. What is the ^usiKCss of the cou7:cil in rela- 
tion to the f^: grams of Religious Education and the agencies 
already in the field f 

Blackboard EpiroirE of Discussion 

Survey. Promotive. 

Communit}' Council of Religious Education for Fundamental 
Correlation. 

Evaluate Agencies and Programs in the Field and Check Up. 

Voice of the Church because Churches are Cooperating in Com- 
mon Task. 

Veesal SuMikiAEY (by Chairman) 

I get four suggestions here as to the function of the inter- 
church council in relation to religious education programs. 

(1) It should survey the situation. 

(2) It should form a community cotmcil of religious education 
for fimdamental correlation. 

(3) It should dare to evaluate* the agencies and programs in 
the field, and check up on them. 

(4) It should become the voice of the Church, because it 
represents the churches cooperating in the common task. 

Question from Floor: Regarding the second suggestion, does 
this community- council recommend that each denomination shall 
go back and teach its own particular line in its own particular 
way? 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 135 

Chairman: I am afraid the local church is going to have to 
answer that. 

Voice from Floor: Would not the federation have a promotive 
function also? Has the federation no responsibility for promot- 
ing the correlated program suggested ? 

It was agreed that this point should be made the fifth sug- 
gestion. 

b. What should the council attempt to do for groups now 
inadequately reached? Should the federation attempt to do 
anything as a federation for the groups unreached by de- 
nominational and other agencies? 

Voices from Floor: It should do it through the group. 
Reach the groups that are unreached through the agencies of 

the council. 
Allocate the task to existing approved agencies. 

Blackboard Epitome of Discussion 
Stimulate the Churches and Other Agencies to Do It. 

Verbal Summary (by Chairman) 

Is it the judgment of this group that the Federation should not 
propose a program of its own, but should work for unreached 
groups through the agencies of the federation? (General assent 
indicated.)* 

c. What Religious Education program of its own, if any, 
should the local council or federation attempt to form and 
promote? 

The Chairman then read a summary question which he said 
would not be discussed further at this time, but which this dis- 
cussion would help to answer. He expressed the hope that each 
delegate would continue to think and work on this question in his 
local field. This is the question: 

d. In Religious Education, what is the distinctive task or 
function of the local council of churches? 



* Note : After the session, a man from a federation in the East 
said they had felt it necessary and wise in their community for 
the federation itself to undertake certain work in Religious 
Education, particularly in the way of weekday instruction and a 
community school of religion. 

Probably a third sub-question which was on the agenda but 
which could not be discussed for lack of time, ought to be frankly 
discussed if this outline of questions were to be followed : 



136 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

The next question discussed was as follows : 

Question 7. To whom should the local council of churches 
look for cooperative help in working out programs and rela- 
tionships? 

Blackboard Epitome of Discussion 

Reach unreached groups as neighbors rather than as special 
racial or religious groups. 
Look for help to : 

Local Organizations in the Community 
Various Church Boards 
Other Related Agencies, such as Scouts 
Sunday School Activities 
Pastors and Representatives from Churches 
Teachers of Religion 
State Organizations 

Question 8. What are the actual steps which a local coun- 
cil of churches should take in formulating and inaugurating 
a Religious Education policy and program? 

Blackboard Epitome of Discussion 

Find and Utilize Forces Already at Work 

Coordinate, not Duplicate 

Get in Touch with Religious Education Departments of the 

Churches of the Community 
Relate Itself to All Other Agencies Doing Work of This 

Character, such as Social Service Agencies, etc. 

Closing Summary (by Chairman) / 

We have attempted to do here together what the secretary of a 
local interchurch council would need to do on his own field, if 
he is going to work out a program of Religious Education, and 
which we should hope the local secretary would do — not in his 
own office, alone, but with the agencies and the representatives 
of the various groups who are going to have to carry out that 
program. 



CHAPTER VI 

MISSIONS 

The Commission on Missions has considered most 
carefully the place and functions of a Commission of 
Missions in the organization of a church federation. We 
have also studied the report of the Commission on a 
Department of Home and Foreign Missions as Appro- 
priate to the Purpose and Methods of the Interchurch 
Federations submitted to the Congress held at Pitts- 
burgh, October 1-4, 1917, which was published in *'The 
Manual of Interchurch Work," prepared by that Con- 
gress. 

The conclusions reached then seem to this Commission 
to be applicable at the present time. We have, therefore, 
incorporated in this report much of the material pre- 
sented in the report of 1917. With this acknowledgment 
we do not deem it necessary to indicate in detail the fea- 
tures of this report which have been taken from the 
other. 

I. Reasons Why a Local Church Federation Should 
Have a Department of Missions 

1. The study of world missions is necessary if the 
common obligations and activities of the congregations 
composing a local federation are to be fairly represented. 

2. Mission study involves two ideas commonly deter- 
rent, namely, missions and study ; it, therefore, needs the 
promotion which a community-wide agency can give. 

3. Definition of missions in terms of international 

137 



138 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

justice and good will and the indispensability of the for- 
mer to a determination of international relations pleads 
for such a general study of missions as can be achieved 
only by federated promotion. 

4. The professed spirit of Christian unity and the 
confessed common responsibility plead for a federated 
study of missionary responsibilities. 

5. Training of study class leaders is practicable only 
by pooling resources in the conduct of an institute for 
the training of leaders. 

6. The best missionary methods, materials, and voices 
can by a federation be made available for all denomina- 
tions. 

7. Many forms of foreign missionary endeavor are 
becoming federated. 

8. The enrichment of the missionary section of the 
public library awaits a general request by the churches 
and assurance of use. 

9. Backward churches would be greatly helped to 
an adequate view and program by federated leadership. 

II. Schemfe of Organization of the Commission on 
Missions in a Local Federation 

In its organization the Commission should be repre- 
sentative of the church forces within the local federation, 
composed of one representative from each congregation, 
or of one from each denomination, or perhaps one from 
each district of the territory covered by the federation. 

The first plan goes back directly to all congregations 
(which may be regarded as the unit), but would involve 




^ 



MISSIONS 139 

a body rather large and unwieldy in the federations in 
large cities. 

The second plan recognizes the denominational groups 
which work with prompt efficiency in many bodies, and, 
we are compelled to say, with doubtful efficiency in 
others. 

The third alternative uses the district or neighborhood, 
that is, a section of the territory having a community of 
interest, as the unit. 

It is the judgment of your Commission that the best 
scheme for the average community is to have the Com- 
mission on Missions made up of one or more representa- 
tives from each denomination within the district served by 
the federation, these denominational representatives to be 
chosen by the denominational groups themselves. To 
make the plan more effective there should be within each 
denomination a group responsible for missions which 
would choose the federation representative. 

Whether the churches, or the denominations, or the 
community be taken as the basis for the organization of 
the Commission on Missions of the federation will deter- 
mine whether such representatives in the Commission 
on Missions are to be elected by the several congregations, 
by the different denominational groups, acting in their 
accustomed way, or by the churches of a given district 
acting in cooperation. It is important that the Commis- 
sion on Missions be so organized as to interpret the 
wishes of the church forces. Your Commission pro- 
poses no hard and fast recommendation. In some feder- 
ations one plan will be most efficient; other federations 
will adopt different plans and methods. The leaders of 
a local federation will seek to work out the scheme of 



140 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

organization in the way to bring about the best results, 
using the methods which have proved effective in the 
territory served by the federation. 

The Commission on Missions should be organized and 
equipped as adequately as any other standard department 
It should include influential workers who are capable of 
developing suitable plans and policies, in harmony with 
those of other departments of the federation and suitable 
to the denominational groups which the federation exists 
to serve. Pastors, laymen, women, and young people 
should be included. The size of the department will be 
determined in each instance by the character of the 
efforts to be put forth and the agencies in the local 
church through which the plans of the federation are to 
be made effective. In small communities every congrega- 
tion might be represented, but usually some plan involv- 
ing a smaller number is to be preferred. A department 
membership of fifteen, if carefully chosen, will usually 
meet the need. One correspondent proposed that every 
church cooperating in the federation be represented by 
one member, and that in large communities with many 
churches, an executive committee be chosen from the 
general department thus formed. The chairman of the 
Commission on Missions should be a member of the 
executive committee of the federation. 

The Commission should be responsible to the governing 
committee of the federation and should make an annual 
written report thereto. It should be financed by the 
federation as in the case of other departments. Its point 
of contact with the local congregation will ordinarily be 
the missionary committee of the congregation. In case 
comprehensive community campaigns require it, sec- 



MISSIONS 141 

tional committees may be formed, or a program may be 
executed by means of established or specially organized 
denominational committees. In such cases the repre- 
sentatives on the Commission of the federation will be 
members of their respective denominational committees, 
if not chairmen. 

It is important that in the membership of the Commis- 
sion should be found capable representatives of Sunday 
schools, young people's, women's, and men's organiza- 
tions, and also of such agencies as Sunday school super- 
intendents' unions, federations of women's missionary 
societies, local unions of young people's societies, and 
kindred community agencies vitally related to the mis- 
sionary propaganda. Every effort should be made to 
give the committee a worthy place in the regard of the 
federation and the community. It must not be a side 
issue. The missionary interests cannot be satisfactorily 
represented and conserved by an overloaded general com- 
mittee of the federation, or by a single overloaded 
executive. 

III. Authority and Functions 

The Commission on Missions can have no more author- 
ity than inheres in the wisdom of its proposals plus the 
weight of the federation organization through which the 
program is promulgated. This statement as to the limita- 
tions of authority does not minimize nor depreciate the 
Commission's function. It is a form of social control 
which has long operated in other matters concerning the 
churches. For example, if a majority of the churches 
in the territory of a federation decides to undertake a 



142 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

careful progressive program in missionary education, 
will not the other churches find it difficult to remain apart 
from the general plan, unless they have the very best 
of reasons? If there were a less united movement be- 
hind such a program, churches might not hesitate to ig- 
nore any such program. 

It clearly is not the function of the Commission on 
Missions to take the place of the denominational agencies 
in the effort to develop missionary consciousness in the 
local church membership, to improve their missionary 
methods, to perfect their missionary organization, to 
increase their contributions for missions, nor to increase 
the number of men and women offering themselves for 
missionary service. The opportunity before the Commis- 
sion on Missions is that of intelligent, devoted coopera- 
tion and inspiration. This cannot be accomplished un- 
less the Commission is true to the principle of denom- 
inational right and authority to direct the missionary 
activities of the churches which the federation seeks to 
serve. The federation does not presume to have control 
of the plans and methods of the different denominations 
in any department of work. 

IV. Relationships of the Commission on Missions 

The Commission on Missions of a local federation 
must adjust its plans and activities to the following: 

1. The Local Church 

So far as the local church is concerned, the relationship 

of the Commission on Missions is purely advisor}- and 

* the plans and programs of the Commission on Missions 



MISSIONS 143 

will in most cases reach the local congregation, through 
the denominational organization of the community. 

2. The Denominational Organizations of the 
Churches within the Territory of the Federa- 
tion 

The relation of the Commission on Missions to the 
local denominational organizations will be advisory, even 
in those cases where the Commission is made up of 
representatives elected by the denominational organiza- 
tions. It must be understood that no plans and programs 
adopted by the Commission on Missions can be forced 
as a denominational program. Programs of the Commis- 
sion on Missions will reach the denominational groups as 
suggestions and recommendations and not as mandates. 

3. All Plans for Religious Education Proposed by 
THE Local Federation and by Denominational 
Groups 

The program of the Commission on Missions must be 
worked out in harmony with the different denominational 
programs and the plans for religious education devised 
by the Commission on Religious Education. This can 
be accomplished only when those who are responsible 
for the religious education program and those responsible 
for the Commission on Missions are in frequent consulta- 
tion and are ready to coordinate their efforts so as to 
present a harmonious scheme for the training of leaders. 
So far as possible, the training of leaders for mission 
study groups should be given at the same time that the 
training of leaders in other forms of religious education 
is given. Experience proves, however, that special train- 



144 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

ing institutes, purely missionary in character, are neces- 
sary, even in those communities where the more elaborate 
schools are conducted. In those communities where such 
schools of methods are not held regularly or have not 
been held at all, special missionary institutes will always 
be required. The Commission on Missions, however, 
should foster every attempt to bring the training of re- 
ligious leaders under one unified program, for all such 
plans to unify religious and missionary education will im- 
prove the instruction in all departments in the churches. 

4. Other Federative Agencies 

In the case of existing federated agencies, such as or- 
ganizations of Sunday school superintendents and of 
Sunday school teachers, young people's unions of the 
different denominations, the organized Bible class 
federations, women's missionary federations, and unions, 
it should be the policy of the Commission on Mis- 
sions to encourage the introduction of missionary instruc- 
tion and through them to promote all other forms of 
missionary activity in local congregations. Experienced 
leaders know that better results will always be secured 
by utilizing and energizing existing agencies rather than 
by setting up duplicate organizations, which often become 
competitive in their activities. To facilitate such efforts 
to cooperate with other agencies, representatives from 
such agencies should be invited to membership in the 
Commission on Missions. 

5. The Denominational Mission Boards 

As to relationships to the denominational mission 
boards, it would seem that in most cases it would be 



MISSIONS 145 

unnecessary to establish direct connections, for if the 
Commission on Missions is properly organized in relation 
to the denominational groups, the denominational con- 
tacts will be made through the denomination's group and 
these denominational groups may be expected to bring 
to the Commission on Missions the programs and plans 
of their respective denominations. If each denomina- 
tional group sustains this connection with its own mission 
board, the Commission on Missions of the federation will 
receive all that these boards have to contribute through 
the channels which should normally be established be- 
tween each denominational board and its local repre- 
sentatives. This plan would avoid any confusion in 
correspondence and contacts on the part of the mission 
boards of different denominations and the activities with- 
in these denominations in the territory covered by the 
federation. However, circumstances may necessitate cor- 
respondence on the part of the officers of the Commission 
on Missions with the officers of the denominational 
boards. In such cases the officers of the federation 
should make clear in what capacity the correspondence is 
conducted, for the secretary of a board should under- 
stand in such correspondence that he is corresponding 
not with a denominational representative but with the 
representative of the Commission on Missions of the local 
federation. 

6. Interdenominational Missionary Agencies 

The relationship of the Commission on Missions of the 
local federation to established and recognized interde- 
nominational national cooperative agencies such as the 
Home Missions Council, Foreign Missions Conference, 



146 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

Missionary Education Department of the Interchurch 
World Movement, Council of Women for Home Mis- 
sions, and the Federation of Women's Boards for For- 
eign Missions of North America, should be that of closest 
cooperation. The national organizations of the federative 
agencies might hesitate to commit entirely the interests 
which they represent to the Commission of Missions in 
a local federation unless the Commission is thoroughly 
organized under the direction of able officers. On the 
other hand, every effort should be made by these national 
cooperative agencies to strengthen in every respect the 
Commission on Missions of the local federation, for un- 
questionably the work which these national agencies ex- 
ist to promote can be made more effective in every com- 
munity if the local agency is effectively organized and 
directed. 

V. What the Commission on Missions Should Aim 

to Accomplish 

The following suggestions are offered as to what the 
Commission on Missions should attempt to accomplish : 

1. An improvement in the efficiency of the missionary 
organization of each congregation. 

2. A successful program of missionary education in 
each congregation. 

3. The promotion of giving to missions according to 
New Testament principles. 

4. The creation in each congregation of the at- 
mosphere in which young men and young women dedi- 
cate themselves to missionary service. 



MISSIONS 147 

5. An increase in the number of persons who have a 
sense of their responsibility to pray for missions. 

6. An increase in the number of men and women who 
will give personal service to missionary activities in or 
near their communities at home or abroad. 

7. The training of leaders competent to inspire and 
guide the missionary activities of each congregation. 

8. The development in each congregation of a con- 
sciousness of community responsibility for missions both 
at home and abroad. 

VI. Practical Suggestions for the Commission on 

Missions 

1. The Commission should be in position to make 
available for the missionary leaders of every local con- 
gregation the literature on the best methods of develop- 
ing all phases of missionary work in a congregation 
issued by the home and foreign mission boards of all 
denominations and by all the interdenominational 
agencies. 

2. There should be available at some place convenient 
of access samples of missionary textbooks, helps for 
leaders, maps, charts, and other accessories which experi- 
ence has proved most useful in developing the missionary 
interests in the congregation. In some communities ar- 
rangements might be made with a centrally located book 
shop to carry stocks of all such material. In other com- 
munities the office of the local federation will be the 
natural place for an exhibit of this character. Wherever 
the exhibit is located, arrangements should be effected by 



148 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

which the supplies could be purchased, and if some book 
shop is willing to carry in stock the material required, it 
will be of very great benefit to all the workers. 

3. Churches should be aided to enlist delegates to 
missionary summer conferences and to leader training 
institutes. 

4. The Commission on Missions should see to it that 
a comprehensive plan of missionary education designed 
to reach every congregation in the territory should be 
conducted at such time in the year as will suit the habits 
of the people connected with each congregation. Such a 
plan would involve : 

a. Correspondence with the proper agencies both de- 
nominational and interdenominational concerning 
textbooks to be used during the coming year. 

b. Decisions as to textbooks to be recommended to 
each congregation, seeing to it that everything is 
done in harmony with the denominational plans 
and that the scheme of missionary education pro- 
posed for each congregation is adapted to the 
needs of that congregation. Many failures in 
mission study programs may be explained because 
the attempt has been made to project plans which 
were not adapted to the needs of the congregation. 
Great care should be given not only to the study of 
the needs of each congregation but also of the 
groups within each congregation. 

c. Arranging and conducting leader training institutes 
at such times and in such places as suit the mis- 
sionary leaders in the congregations. In some 



MISSIONS 149 

cities a single institute centrally located will be 
sufficient ; in other cities it may be necessary to pro- 
vide several institutes in the several communities. 
d. There should be conducted schools of missions, 
plans for these schools to be worked out to meet 
the requirements of the different congregations or 
groups of congregations. 

5. Special attention should be given to the circulation 
of missionary literature, such as books, charts, periodi- 
cals, and leaflets. 

In attempting to stimulate the circulation of missionary 
literature, the Commission should plan a simultaneous 
campaign throughout the whole territory of the federa- 
tion. A list of books suitable for different groups — for 
example, books for children, for young people, for older 
persons — should be prepared with care and circulated in 
all the congregations and, if possible, exhibits of these 
books should be arranged for in every congregation. 
Arrangements for the sale of the books should be 
worked out so that when a person's interest in a book 
has been established the purchase can be made without 
difficulty. Oftentimes the distribution of books is hin- 
dered because no provision is made for the sale of the 
book at the time the interest on the part of the purchaser 
has been generated. 

A simultaneous campaign to secure subscriptions to 
missionary periodicals should be put on at a different 
time in the year and the interest of the leaders in the 
different congregations concentrated on the securing of 
subscriptions during a definite period, for example, a 
week or ten days. The periodical of each denomination 



150 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

should be given right of way in the churches of that de- 
nomination. The interdenominational publications such 
as The Missionary Review of the World, The World Out- 
look, The International Review of Missions, Everyland, 
and The Moslem World should also be brought to the 
attention of each congregation. In every congregation a 
person should be designated who will receive the sub- 
scriptions for these periodicals and a systematic canvass 
should be made of the membership. The distribution and 
use of leaflets can go on at all times during the year. 
There are big possibilities in the use of leaflets, but this 
form of activity should be intrusted only to those persons 
who have a genuine interest in this form of service and 
who are wise in their methods. 

6. A special committee should be appointed by the 
Commission on Missions for the purpose of increasing the 
number of missionary books and periodicals purchased 
by the public libraries each year. This committee should 
be composed of men and women of standing in the com- 
munity who will make their recommendations under the 
classifications in use in the library. For example, many 
so-called missionary books will be classified by librarians 
as books of travel. Other books of very great interest 
on missions will be classified under "History," "Soci- 
ology," "Religion," etc. 

7. There should be organized a series of missionary 
addresses and lectures, including stereopticon views and 
moving pictures. Within the territory of some federa- 
tions it will be sufficient to have a single series for the 
entire community; in other federations it will be neces- 
sary to have the addresses given in different sections of 



MISSIONS 151 

the city. In all cases these lectures should be made avail- 
able for the people of all denominations and should be 
widely advertised in local newspapers, and by other 
methods found to be of service to the community. These 
lectures and addresses could be given by denominational 
leaders, missionaries from both home and foreign fields, 
travelers, and other lecturers who have visited different 
mission countries. A service of great value which the 
Commission on Missions can render is to make available 
for each community and for all denominations the services 
of distinguished denominational leaders who, without the 
efforts of such a central agency as the Commission on 
Missions, might come to the city, serve their own denom- 
ination, and be of no service whatever to the people of 
other denominations. The Commission should arrange 
for addresses before such organizations as Rotary 
Clubs, Chambers of Commerce, women's clubs of various 
kinds, and for private luncheons for business men and 
others. 

8. The publication in local papers of items of mission- 
ary news should be secured. It will be necessary to have 
a subcommittee who will specialize on this work. If 
possible, men and women connected with the local news- 
papers should become members of this committee. 

9. Cooperation in simultaneous financial campaigns 
for missions should be obtained. The local federation 
should not undertake to raise or administer missionary 
funds. Its financial efforts should be limited in the local 
churches to activities that produce funds for and through 
the established denominational channels and agencies. 



152 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

10. Missionary interest in Sunday schools in harmony 
with the denominational plans should be stimulated. 

11. Wherever possible, openings in public schools for 
missionary addresses and lectures should be secured. 

12. It should be brought about that missionaries and 
secretaries of mission boards are entertained in private 
homes, using care to secure invitations to those homes 
where the particular missionary or secretary will fit into 
the home extending the invitation. 

13. Exhibits should be arranged for county fairs and 
for city expositions, bringing together a varied display 
of the best missionary material and securing missionaries 
and other experts as lecturers or demonstrators in these 
exhibits. 

14. A community campaign should be conducted to 
commend Christian vocations to young people, and to 
help parents, pastors, and other local church leaders in 
their effort to qualify as wise counselors to life-work 
recruits, and to provide adequately for their training. 

15. The Commission on Missions should act as a clear- 
ing house or depository for circulating interdenomina- 
tional stereopticon lectures. 

16. The Commission should cooperate with pastors and 
church committees in arranging for the presentation of 
subjects related to home and foreign missions either by 
the pastors themselves or by other competent speakers 
resident in the community or invited from the outside. 
Interchanges of pulpits for missionary addresses by all 
the pastors of a city on a chosen Sunday have been ar- 
ranged successfully. 



MISSIONS 153 

17. An annual missionary survey of the churches 
should be made and the results published. The chief 
subjects to be covered in such a survey are organization, 
education, prayer, giving, service, and recruiting. Results 
of such a survey could well be reviewed at a representa- 
tive conference called by the Commission. 

18. By drama and pageantry the Commission can ar- 
rest public attention, inform and move the public mind, 
and do for participants an educational work. 

Dangers to Be Avoided 

The Commission calls attention to the following dan- 
gers that should be avoided in any community where the 
local federation desires to undertake the development of 
the missionary spirit and the efficiency of missionary 
service : 

Attempting too much at the beginning. 

Placing disproportionate emphasis on either home or 
foreign phases of the work of world missions. 

Attempting missionary administration or interfering 
with the established mission boards in discharging their 
own responsibilities of their appointed task. 

Actually collecting funds to be administered by the 
Commission for mission work. 

Undue alliance with the churches of one denomination. 

Too intensive cultivation of the local churches, as con- 
trasted with the training of leaders and emphasizing 
ideals. 

Attempting arbitrarily to change methods of local 
churches. 

Failure to cooperate equally with all interdenomina- 
tional agencies. 



154 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

Creating a federation self-consciousness, by making 
the organization an end in itself. Desire for self-glorifi- 
cation. 

Doing superficial work. 

Failure to urge church members to function through 
their own churches. 

Failure to select as members of the Commission those 
who are actually qualified to lead the cooperative work 
for which the program adopted calls. 

Conclusion 

The Commission has made no attempt to outline the 
details of organization and promotion of specific forms 
of cooperative missionary effort in a community. Any 
well-organized commission will be able to discover ex- 
perienced workers enough in the local churches to develop 
successful plans, especially if close relationships are main- 
tained with the leaders of the national, interdenomina- 
tional missionary agencies. The whole matter may be 
summarized by stating that the local federations should 
adopt and use whatever cooperative methods will help to 
fulfil the following primary objectives : (1) to improve the 
missionary organization of thechurches ; (2) to(foster mis- 
sionary education; (3) to increase the volume of mission- 
ary intercession ; (4) to promote giving according to New 
Testament principles; (5) to organize and direct per- 
sonal missionary service in and near the community; 
(6) to enlist for missionary life service; and, (7) that 
these may become a reality, to train leaders competent to 
inspire and guide the entire membership of the churches 
in ever-expanding effort to extend and establish Chris- 
tianity in the whole earth. 



CHAPTER VII 

INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND 
GOODWILL 

This Commission approaches its task with profound 
appreciation of the difficulties of the world situation, first, 
because of the selfishness which has been developed in 
international relationships through the clashing of na- 
tional interests, and second, because of the narrow paro- 
chial ideals which still pervade so much of our community 
and church life. National selfishness has produced a 
false patriotism which finds its chief expression within 
the community. The purpose of this report is to outline 
a program for the churches through which they may com- 
bine their forces and, through the presentation of the 
ideals of a true internationalism, help to promote the 
establishment of a Christian world order. Every com- 
munion and every church should share in this effort. 
Individual churches or even entire communions working 
alone can make but little contribution. Only the cooper- 
ation of tens of thousands of churches of all communions, 
and of millions of intelligent Christians uniting under a 
common leadership will be able to Christianize America's 
international relations, and thus do their part in this 
great world enterprise. 

The success of every other part of the Christian pro- 
gram is most intimately connected with the success of this 
part. No church that has missionaries in Japan, China, 
or any other country, should feel that it is doing its full 
share in Christianizing those lands if it fails to cooperate 
in establishing a Christian world order. 

155 



156 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

I. The Task 

Never since the fall of the Roman Empire has the 
world found itself in such a crisis as the present. Civili- 
zation has apparently broken down, and the whole social 
order which is the house and home of humanity is in 
danger of falling to ruins. The task that confronts us 
today is one of commanding importance. We cannot es- 
cape its obligations. A new world order must be built. 
The plans for this building must be thought out with care, 
and into the building must go the best material saved 
from the wreckage which is strewn throughout all the 
nations of the world, and the new materials that are to 
be shaped and fashioned for their places in the structure. 

God's Kingdom requires universal right relations. 
Truth and honesty, righteousness and square dealing, 
honor and goodwill must be established and observed 
between nations no less than between individuals and be- 
tween classes in a single nation. Too long have these 
relations been considered outside the range of Christian 
responsibility. We learned with sudden dismay of our 
failures of the past. The tragedy of so-called Christian 
Europe disclosed the frightful consequences of national 
selfishness and disregard of moral laws in international 
relations. So long as these relations are unchristian, so 
long as bare national might is accepted by any large and 
powerful nation as the proper ground for national right, 
so long as any nation or race is taught and believes that 
it may rightly regard its own selfish interests and ambi- 
tions as the sole guide of action, so long will military 
preparations and establishments grow from more to more 
among all the nations. But with the growth of vast 



The community 

aroundyour church 

is the whole world 




Every federation and every 
church should have an active 
department for the study of 
International friendship 



158 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

military establishments among all the powerful nations 
effective evangelism will become increasingly difficult, 
whether local, national, or foreign. The Christian pro- 
gram for individual and for social salvation cannot be 
carried to real and permanent success until the Kingdom 
of God is firmly established in international and inter- 
racial relations. 

The new task, accordingly, of American churches is to 
Christianize America's international relations. Easy it is 
for a nation to see the motes in the eyes of other nations 
and to ignore the beam in its own eye. It is easy but it 
is dangerous. 

Relations between America and Japan should be set 
right. Our treaties with China should no longer be 
ignored. Our pledge to protect aliens should be kept. 
Suitable legislation to make this possible should be 
passed. Mexican suspicion should be overconte. The 
full confidence of South Americans should be won. Com- 
prehensive immigration legislation, free from race dis- 
crimination, should be enacted. Adequate relief and 
reconstruction funds should be raised for the sufferers 
from the World War. America should take her part in 
setting up adequate world organization for the establish- 
ment of durable peace, based upon justice. There are 
ways of doing all these things and they are Christian 
ways. They should be known to all American Christians, 
who would cooperate effectively for their attainment. 

But the task immediately pressing for accomplishment 
by American Christians is the development of a national 
spirit that will secure the ratification by the United States 
of the Covenant of the League of Nations. Only as 



JUSTICE AND GOODWILL 159 

America becomes and remains an unselfish member of the 
League can she do her full part in establishing a Chris- 
tian world order. If America remains outside of the 
League, increasing international suspicion and rivalry will 
be inevitable. Equally inevitable will be the development 
of competitive armaments with all that they mean of 
crushing economic burdens, compulsory military training, 
the cultivation on a national scale among all American 
youth of power-psychology, that is, of war-psychology, 
and in the end another world war. 

America's ratification of the Covenant and her constant 
maintenance of a spirit and a will to make the League 
a success by applying the Christian ideals of service, 
fraternal goodwill, and cooperation — these are interna- 
tional tasks of superlative importance, demanding the 
immediate and continuing attention of American churches 
and Christians. 

America now has unique opportunity and responsibility 
for bringing in the new world order. The American 
Government and all its people should be as active in 
promoting world organization and international goodwill 
as they are in providing for national safety and prosperity. 

II. Fundamemtal Principles of a Christian World 

Order 

Permanent world peace will come only as the product 
of international goodwill and the sense of brotherhood 
expressing itself in righteousness. Peace is the outcome 
of justice, justice is secured through law, law depends 
upon organization. The political organization of the 
world, therefore, is an essential step toward durable 



160 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

peace. Nations, as individuals, should recognize the 
rights of others, render justice rather than demand rights, 
and find their greatness in goodwill and service. 

One of the most significant lessons taught by the Great 
War is that the world is simply one great community. 
There are circles of interest within this community — 
some larger than others, but all circles are embraced with- 
in the great circle of the world. The world cannot be made 
Christian except through the Christianization of com- 
munity life. This means that every circle of influence 
and power throughout the world, all of which taken 
together make up the common life of mankind, must be 
brought under the domination of the principles of Jesus 
•of Nazareth, and made subject to His will and authority. 
So then, no matter what the problem may be that affects 
the nations of the earth and their relations with each 
other, it is at bottom a problem to be dealt with in the 
life of the community. The Kingdom of God, which is 
but another term for a new world order, will not be 
realized until it is realized in the life of the individual. 
National selfishness is primarily individual selfishness, 
expressing itself first in the community life, and reaching 
out from the community to world relationships. 

The establishment of this Christian world order re- 
quires : 

a. The abandonment of pagan nationalism, with its 
distorted patriotism, its secret diplomacy, its double 
morality, its demoralizing spy system, and its frank and 
brutal assertion of selfishness, of unlimited sovereignty, 
and of the right to override and destroy weak neighbors ; 
and 



JUSTICE AND GOODWILL 161 

b. The adoption of a Christian nationahsm, a Chris- 
tian patriotism, and a Christian internationalism, which 
assert the familyhood of nations, the Hmitation of local 
and of national sovereignty, and the right of all nations 
and races small and great to share in the world's resources 
and in opportunity for self-directing development and 
expanding life. The establishment of the new world 
order implies the substitution of economic cooperation 
in the place of competition between nations. 

The churches of America should now vigorously pro- 
mote nation-wide education in Christian internationalism, 
unparalleled international benevolence, right legislation 
dealing with interracial relations, and suitable interna- 
tional organization. 

III. Conditions of Achievement 

This great task of Christianizing international rela- 
tions can be achieved only as the expression of moral 
character of a high order. It must be set up and guide 
the political machinery of the nations through intelligent 
understanding of world problems and also of the way to 
solve them. This achievement, however, is possible only 
as millions of men and women of faith and prayer, in 
tens of thousands of churches, unite for nation-wide 
education and for collective action. 

There are enormous latent forces in our land and 
especially in our churches, demanding international jus- 
tice and goodwill. The problem is, how to mass this 
power so as to make it effective for action. It must be 
put into action and at the same time directed. It must be 
geared up to our political machinery in ways that will 



162 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

make the Christian ideals and convictions effective in 
directing America's international policies. The churches 
as ecclesiastical bodies should not enter into politics, but 
Christian citizens should nevertheless be able to act in 
these matters collectively and simultaneously. This means 
that the churches should recognize themselves as the 
centers of information and great teaching agencies in 
every community to develop the minds of the people 
and train their consciences in relation to America's proper 
place and attitude toward the other nations of the 
world. 

The local churches must grapple energetically with 
these problems and cooperate earnestly in the program, if 
results are to be secured. Not only should every federa- 
tion of churches have its own Commission on Interna- 
tional Justice and Goodwill, but it would be well if many 
churches should have their own committees and make their 
own contribution. No local church and no federation of 
churches can be regarded as working for the full program 
of the Kingdom of God that does not provide for suitable 
cooperation with Christians in other churches and de- 
nominations in the accomplishment of this task. 

IV. The Commission on International Justice and 

Goodwill 

Each church federation should establish a Commission 
composed of suitable persons, and undertake as an inte- 
gral and essential part of its regular work an active cam- 
paign for enlisting all Christian citizens in the community 
in intelligent and effective cooperation for the establish- 
ment of Christian internationalism. 



JUSTICE AND GOODWILL 163 

A. Membership of the Commission 

1. There should be, so far as practicable, at least one 
representative on the Commission from each communion. 

2. The members should be men and women who be- 
lieve in constructive policies, both educational and prac- 
tical. 

3. The members should be outstanding and influential 
laymen, women, and pastors, all of whom know how to 
work and how to work together. 

4. The executive secretary of the federation of 
churches should doubtless be a member ex-ojficio, but 
probably should not be its chairman or secretary, 

B. Activities of the Commission 

1. The Commission will be the point of communication 
between the local community and the national organiza- 
tions that seek to establish a Christian world order. All 
efforts to reach the community through its churches and 
through individuals shall usually function through this 
Commission, which shall be considered in every place the 
nucleus for carrying on the education in behalf of a 
better world order and better relationships between the 
different nations. The Commission should secure from 
the World Alliance (70 Fifth Avenue, New York City) 
the literature dealing with the formation and work of 
community and local church commissions and commit- 
tees. This literature should be studied by the members 
of the committee separately and then together, with a 
view to the general program proposed and its applicability 
to their own community. It is to be remembered that 
the proposals are not mandatory but suggestive. There 



164 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

are no hard and fast rules. The forms of activity, the 
programs, and the study courses are to be adapted by 
each commission to the conditions and needs of its own 
locality. 

2. The Commission should be in close contact with 
the World Alliance for International Friendship and 
understand its proposals and program. (Cf. V below.) 

3. The Commission should know accurately what the 
churches of the city are doing in the education of their 
membership in Christian internationalism. 

4. The Commission should consider how it should ap- 
proach those who are doing nothing and also how it can 
best aid those that are at work. 

5. The Commission should seek to secure its ends 
with a minimum of machinery and a maximum of effi- 
ciency. 

6. Too many meetings should be carefully avoided. 

7. Suitable subcommittees on visitation should be ap- 
pointed to present to the pastor and officers of each local 
church the principles and program of the Commission 
with a view to securing their intelligent and sympathetic 
cooperation. 

8. The program and purpose of the Commission should 
be presented to the regular ministers' meeting of each 
communion in order to secure their understanding of the 
proposals and their enthusiastic endorsement of the gen- 
eral plan. 

9. The Commission should have an executive secretary, 
perhaps some young man or woman who would give con- 
siderable if not full time and thought to its work. He 
should investigate conditions, keep records, guide the 



JUSTICE AND GOODWILL 165 

subcommittees on visitation, and coordinate the activities 
of the various churches in the community. 

10. The Commission should foster the organization 
of study groups, and urge the use of some constructive 
course of study or discussion outHne each year. 

IL The Commission should try to provide at least 
one course of popular lectures annually, open to the pub- 
lic, and also series of sermons in the different churches. 
When possible it should publish bulletins and in other 
ways seek to make the ideals of a Christian World Order 
vital and effective in the local community. 

12. The Commission might well seek out in its com- 
munity one or more groups of foreign born persons, be- 
come acquainted with them and cooperate with existing 
organizations in extending to them the best that the com- 
munity has to offer. It should seek to make effective such 
programs of training for citizenship as will best meet the 
local needs, so that these people will receive from the 
community what America would do for the nation from 
which they came. 

13. Wherever practicable a committee should he se- 
cured in each local church. 

A real difficulty, however, is encountered at this point. 
The tasks of the local church are many and important. 
There is a constant call for extra committees and sys- 
tematic education. The danger, is lest one or two good 
causes will absorb the attention and interest of the church 
to the neglect of other causes that are also important 
Moreover, there is proper solicitude lest the multiplication 
of societies and committees distract attention and divide 
the membership into competing groups. 



166 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

To meet these difficulties the following suggestion is 
offered. Let the church federation establish one general 
committee on Educational Courses, with subcommittees, 
such as those on Home Missions, Foreign Missions, So- 
cial Service, Temperance, International Friendship, etc. 
Each department might be allowed from three to six 
weeks each winter for its series of meetings and classes. 
Thus the entire church membership would receive the 
needful education in the full program of the Church mili- 
tant and all the members be prepared to do their share 
in each great task. 

In churches where committees or groups already exist 
these should, of course, be recognized and brought into 
the general plan. In some places it might seem wise to 
intrust to the Committee on Foreign Missions or Social 
Service the duty of promoting education on international 
friendship. Should this, however, result in sidetracking 
either interest, real efficiency will have been sacrificed for 
the sake of simplified machinery. The important thing is 
that each church should provide for the proper education 
of all its members in the full program of the Church 
universal. 

But whichever of the above methods may be adopted, 
those in the local churches who are responsible for the 
courses dealing with international friendship should be 
regarded as the church committee on the matter and be 
so recorded in the New York office of the World Alli- 
ance for International Friendship through the Churches. 
Only in this way can the nation-wide, collective, and sinu- 
ultaneous action of millions of Christian citizens be se- 
cured when needed. ' 



JUSTICE AND GOODWILL 167 

14. A community normal class on Christian interna- 
tionalism might well be established. 

a. A competent leader who is an experienced 
teacher should be secured. 

b. The object of the normal class is not to give 
lectures on internationalism in general, but to 
train teachers in Christian internationalism and 
in methods of instruction and organization who 
can conduct the work in the individual 
churches. 

c. The leader should be thoroughly acquainted 
with the World Alliance literature and its 
program. 

d. Each church committee should have at least 
two of its members attend the normal class. 

e. The normal class course should probably be 
limited to six or eight weeks at most and might 
well have a regular enrolment fee of from $1 
to $2 to provide for textbooks and other neces- 
sary expenses. 

f. The study of Christian internationalism might 
easily become pedantic, abstract, and unprofit- 
able. Those who select the courses of study 
should secure textbooks, and teachers suited to 
their particular classes. As a rule the courses 
should be short, from four to eight weeks, and 
the textbooks simple and concrete. As courses 
are continually improved from year to year, 
those contemplating the study of Christian in^ 
ternationalism should secure from the head- 



168 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

quarters of the World Alliance (70 Fifth 
Avenue, New York City) the latest informa- 
tion as to the courses available. 

15. Pageants, photo-plays, and debates would be highly 
interesting and helpful. 

16. At some time during the autumn or winter conduct 

a two days' intensive campaign consisting of four or five 
meetings, under some such general topics as "The New 
Task of the Church," "A Christian World Order," "The 
New Internationalism." 

a. Cooperation of all the denominations and 
churches should be secured in this campaign. 

b. Local speakers should be largely utilized. Oc- 
casionally one or two speakers of national re- 
pute might be used. 

c. A chorus of young people would add to the 
effectiveness of the work. 

d. A pageant might be given. 

e. Suitable literature should be distributed and 
offered for sale. 

f. Decorations should be made of all national 
flags, with the Christian flag the unifying cen- 
ter of all. 

g. Topics of lectures might wxll be the League 
of Nations, The Adequate Protection of Aliens, 
Immigration and International Relations, Dis- 
armament, The Oriental Problem, Relations 
with Mexico and Latin America, Anglo-Ameri- 
can Friendship, Franco-American Relations, 
Italy's International Problems, etc. 



JUSTICE AND GOODWILL 169 

h. Forum discussions can well be made a prom- 
inent feature. 

17. A representative of the Commission might well be 
placed on state and city photo-play board of censors. 
All photo-plays arousing race prejudice or international 
hostility should be condemned by state and city boards 
of censors. This is as important as condemnation of 
photo-plays that are sexually immoral. Federations of 
churches constitute suitable and effective bodies of Chris- 
tians for securing the adoption of right standards in these 
matters. The federation should have one or more repre- 
sentatives on such boards of censors. 

18. The Commission should have a publicity agent ac- 
quainted with the editors of the local papers, who should 
provide "news" of the right kind as to local and national 
activities, and secure publications of discussion and re- 
ports of addresses and lectures of value to the entire 
community. The report of the Commission on Religious 
Publicity should be mastered by him. When the papers 
publish material that stirs up national selfishness or race 
prejudice, counteracting influences should be set in mo- 
tion by the publication of other articles or news showing 
the other and Christian side of the controversy. 

19. All educational courses should culminate in the call 
for enrolment for service. Individual Christians who 
desire to do their part in establishing a Christian world 
order should be so connected and organized that they can 
act simultaneously and unitedly. Read again section III 
on Conditions of Achievement, and note carefully what 
is said in the last paragraph of section V on the World 
Alliance for International Friendship. 



170 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

V. The World Alliance for International Friendship 
through the Churches 

The federation of churches as a rule includes only the 
evangelical churches of a community and sometimes not 
all of them. This task of Christianizing international 
relations, however, is one that does not depend on mat- 
ters of doctrine or on theories of ecclesiastical order or 
legitimacy. It is a task, therefore, in which all denomina- 
tions and communions can and should unite. It accord- 
ingly follows that the federation in setting up its com- 
mission should at the outset approach those bodies that 
are not constituent members of the federation, tell them 
of the plans, and invite their cooperation by appointment 
of suitable persons for membership in this department. 

From the very start it is highly desirable that the Com- 
mission should establish intimate relations with the World 
Alliance for International Friendship through the 
Churches. 

The relation of the American Council of the World 
Alliance to the Commission on International Justice and 
Goodwill of the Federal Council of the Churches of 
Christ in America throws important light on this subject. 
The former body has come into existence in order that 
the great task of Christianizing international relations 
may be more effectively and promptly accomplished by 
bringing into the fullest cooperation all the Christian 
forces, regardless of questions of doctrine or ecclesiasti- 
cism. The World Alliance seeks to organize the religious 
forces of the world so that the weight of all churches and 
Christians can be brought to bear upon the relations of 
governments and peoples to the end that the spirit of 



JUSTICE AND GOODWILL 171 

peace and goodwill may prevail, and that there may be 
substituted arbitration for war in the settlement of inter- 
national disputes; friendship in place of suspicion and 
hate; cooperation instead of ruinous competition; and a 
spirit of service and sacrifice rather than that of greed 
and gain in all transactions between the nations. 

The following have been adopted as the principles 
upon which the World Alliance proposes to found its 
program for the common action of the churches of the 
world : 

1. The World Alliance contends that the principles 
of justice and brotherhood apply to the action of nations 
no less than of individuals; and, as a consequence, gen- 
eral human interests should take precedence of special 
national interests and a nation no less than an individual 
should recognize that it lives as a member of a larger 
whole. 

2. Inasmuch as the League of Nations is in effect an 
attempt to apply these Christian principles to interna- 
tional relations, every effort should be made by the 
churches to secure that moral atmosphere in which alone 
a League of Nations can work successfully; and they 
should support such extensions of the authority of the 
League as experience may warrant. 

3. The World Alliance calls upon all Christian 
churches to support the League of Nations in bringing 
about as soon as possible an extensive reduction of all 
military establishments throughout the world and the 
abolition of conscription. 

4. The churches as believers in Christ's gospel of love 
should use every endeavor to heal the wounds of the war 



172 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

and promote a spirit of reconciliation between the peoples 
who have been at war. 

5. In the interest of the brotherhood of the peoples 
of the world it is desirable that the League of Nations 
should establish international understandings, with a view 
to improving the conditions of labor and raising the 
standard of life. 

6. As no sound national or international life can be 
maintained where justice is not secured, the World 
Alliance contends that in all the new arrangements now 
being made it is essential to safeguard the rights of 
minorities, particularly the essentials of spiritual life, 
viz : liberty as regards religion and education. 

7. Since secret agreements, or the suspicion that such 
exist, have been a fruitful source of international unrest, 
the Alliance stands for the principle of full publicity of 
all treaties and international agreements. 

The Federal Council is composed of thirty constituent 
bodies ; the American Council of the World Alliance seeks 
to unite all denominations. At present members of forty- 
one communions in America are members of the Ameri- 
can Council. The Board of Directors of the American 
Council of the World Alliance includes all the members 
of the Federal Council Commission on International Jus- 
tice and Goodwill, with others. Its Executive Committee 
is also the Executive Committee of the Commission. Thus 
the activities of the World Alliance, so far as they come 
within the constituent bodies of the Federal Council of 
the Churches of Christ in America, are the activities of 
its Commission on International Justice and Goodwill, 



JUSTICE AND GOODWILL 173 

while so far as they fall among other bodies they are ex- 
clusively the work of the World Alliance. 

Each community in America where there is a church 
federation, in cooperating with the American Council of 
the World Alliance, will thereby be brought into active 
cooperative relationship with all the organizations seeking 
to establish a Christian world order not only within the 
United States, but throughout the world. Twenty-two 
national councils have already been formed. 

The American Council of the World Alliance is seeking 
100,000 individual members. The Commissions of church 
federations might well establish each its own group con- 
nection with the American Council and also cooperate 
in securing for the Council the desired 100,000 individual 
members. Membership in the American Council carries 
with it membership in the world organization. Twenty- 
two nations have made similar arrangements, and are 
seeking members in this world circle of interest. When- 
ever there can be secured in America, England, France, 
and the other important nations of the world 1,000,000 
members of the Christian churches, who are thinking to- 
gether, planning together, and working out a common pro- 
gram of action, it will be almost impossible for any ques- 
tion to arise between these nations or any group of them 
that cannot be settled by peaceful means. The churches 
of America should influence immediately 100,000 men and 
women to become members of this international organiza- 
tion. Provision should be made for follow up work, until 
each local church has furnished its quota of members in 
the World Alliance and has actually established its com- 
mittee or department. 



174 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

VI. Suggestions for Communities Which Lack 
Councils or Federations of Churches 

The foregoing program is not, of course, practicable 
for communities in which no church federation exists or 
where the number of churches is quite small. In such 
communities the procedure would have to be modified 
in important respects. 

The initial steps would probably have to be taken by 
some single pastor or experienced layman. A Committee 
for International Friendship may well be started in an in- 
dividual church without waiting for others to cooperate, 
and under its guidance a short study course could be 
undertaken. An individual church is not dependent on, 
and need not wait for, community action. 

A committee that has already started successful work 
in its own church might well approach its neighbors, tell 
what is happening locally, nationally, and internationally, 
and invite them to enter into the movement. 

When two or three churches have established their 
committees, they might well arrange for cooperation 
unitedly, inviting other churches to share in the great 
work. This would in fact become the Community Com- 
mission on International Friendship. With the establish- 
ment of this, larger plans could then be entered upon. At 
every stage common sense should be exercised. Only 
so much of the program given above should be under- 
taken as seems adapted to the situation. 

Conclusion 

The world is weary of war, shocked and appalled by 
its horrors, disgusted at its prodigal waste, and aghast 



JUSTICE AND GOODWILL 175 

at the frightful consequences to follow for decades. It 
most earnestly desires a world where these things shall 
be no more. There is, however, only one kind of a world 
where that can be. It is a Christian world — a world in 
which classes and nations and races shall learn of Christ, 
and shall look upon each other as brethren, shall be just 
and sincere and honest and truthful and helpful in their 
mutual relations, and shall insist that these principles be 
followed by those who are placed in posts of official re- 
sponsibility and national power. 

The enthronement of Christ and obedience to His will, 
not only in the emotional and intellectual life of individ- 
uals and of church groups, but in the volitional and prac- 
tical life of nations is the only road by which nations can 
travel with permanent security and growing prosperity. 

The attainment in practice of this ideal of a Christian 
world depends, however, upon the vision, consecration, 
and determination of the Christian Church — primarily of 
the pastors and through them of millions of Christian 
laymen. The 40,000,000 professed Christians in America 
can make America's international relations Christian, if 
they will. This can be accomplished only by the cordial 
cooperation of individuals, churches, and denominations 
in city, state, and national federations. If the Christians 
of America will make America's international relations 
thoroughly Christian, a great step forward will have been 
taken toward making all international relations Christian. 



CHAPTER VIII 

RELIGIOUS PUBLICITY 

Intelligent study and use of publicity, in its largest 
sense, is not optional with the Church. It was com- 
manded by the Founder of the Church Himself. "Go 
ye into all the world," he said, "and preach the gospel 
to every creature." Speaking in entire reverence one 
may say that that sentence constitutes the most compre- 
hensive sales and advertising contract ever issued. It 
was not limited or qualified in any sense. He did not 
say, "Preach the gospel to every creature who will pre- 
sent himself at eleven o'clock on Sunday morning" or 
"To every creature who will regularly contribute to the 
support of the Church." It was the command of a great 
Executive who expects His associates to discover and 
employ the best media and methods for making His 
instructions effective. 

He Himself did not by any means confine His preach- 
ing to the synagogue. He was constantly in the market 
place. Does anyone imagine that He today would neg- 
lect the modern market place, which is the newspaper? 
It is the one medium through which the buyers and sell- 
ers of the whole city meet; the common exchange for 
goods and gossip alike ; the meeting ground of minds. 
That every other voice should be raised in that vast 
forum except His voice means that the Church is not 
completely executing His command. 

The four gospels constitute the best manual of church 
publicity. One who studies them from this viewpoint 

176 



RELIGIOUS PUBLICITY 177 

is impressed by the fact that Jesus was marvelously suc- 
cessful in securing the right kind of publicity ; His fame 
spread far beyond the borders of the towns where He 
was actually seen and heard. Yet He never did anything 
with publicity as a first objective. Most of all He was 
never undignified, never sensational for the sake of effect. 
He was widely advertised because what He did was news. 
The healing of a blind man, the raising of the dead to life, 
the feeding of the hungry, formed matter that the news- 
papers of those days would have been glad enough to 
print. 

Real Church News 

And what was news then is news still. Every pastor 
in every week of his ministry plays a part in one or more 
dramas of intense human interest. He helps men who 
are down and out; he finds jobs for boys who are just 
out of school; he reunites heartbroken couples; he sees 
the triumph of faith over the fear of death. The names 
of the men and women so helped cannot be printed; yet 
the facts often could be. If every pastor would take the 
trouble to write out the most interesting experience in his 
week and furnish it to the publicity department of the 
local federation, those items could be printed Monday 
mornings in a column that would be so full of human 
interest that any newspaper would be glad to have it. 

People are interested in people. Think how the atti- 
tude of the average man toward the Church and its 
ministers would change if he could see the minister 
week by week, not merely as a preacher but as a pastor, 
and the Church engaged not merely in holding services 



178 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

but in doing service — the kind of service that carried 
the fame of its Founder throughout Palestine. 

A Broad View of Publicity 

Publicity in the minds of too many still means getting 
notices of church services into the daily papers. Let us 
dismiss this narrow view at once. 

The Church of Jesus Christ is the moving force be- 
hind almost every institution and organized effort making 
for a better community. Almost all of the colleges were 
founded by the churches ; hospitals are supported by the 
churches: the ideals that animate all civic organizations 
are Christian ideals. All of these movements and organi- 
zations are making news. Some way should be found to 
keep the public conscious of the fact that all of them 
are merely evidences of the spirit of Jesus Christ. Spe- 
cifically, the first question which a church federation 
should ask itself is this : "How can the churches unitedly 
play a part in every effort that tends to make this com- 
munity a better place for men and women to live in 
and for children to grow up in? How can they make 
their influence felt in the solution of every community 
problem in accordance with the principles of Jesus?" 
If the churches are constantly at work through the in- 
stitutions and movements that their spirit has inspired, 
they will be inevitably and consistently in the news. 

False Publicity 

It seems almost superfluous to state that bad publicity 
is far worse than no publicity; yet too many churches 
and pastors have not yet learned that stubborn truth. 
Only recently a member of this Commission noted a 



RELIGIOUS PUBLICITY 179 

great banner across the front of a New York City 
church with the flaming words: 

"GREAT SCOT" 

In smaller type the banner proclaimed that a Scotchman 
(not a great Scotchman either) was to speak in the 
church on Sunday evening. 

Advertising of this character was popular with the 
patent medicine companies twenty years ago. One will 
recall plenty of examples like the following: 

LIKE RED HOT IRON 

Were the Pains That Shot Down 

The Back of Mrs. J. P. Jones 

of 21 Erie Street 

That sort of advertising self-respecting business long ago 
discarded. What was too vulgar to serve the ends of 
business is certainly beneath the use of the Church. 

Sensational publicity may attract a crowd. It has 
never built a strong working church. And for every 
single curiosity-seeker attracted by it, a dozen thought- 
ful men and women are filled with a revulsion which 
reacts against the Church as a whole. 

Concerning Newspapers and Newspaper Men 

A newspaper proprietor is a manufacturer. He has 
a product to sell — news. If he is the right kind of a 
proprietor, and most of them are the right kind, he 
takes pride in that product. He has the same resent- 
ment against the man who comes around to his office 



180 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

and tries to get something printed which is not news 
which a manufacturer of baking powder would have 
against a man who tried to persuade him to aduherate 
his baking powder. He may be courteous in his refusal : 
he may even oblige by the publication of the item out 
of respect to the church constituency. But the resent- 
ment persists. The way to be popular in a newspaper 
office is to help the newspaper to get live, interesting, 
fresh news. 

There is a vast difference between the newspaper 
men of fiction and the newspaper men of fact. In fic- 
tion the reporter is often depicted as a hard-faced, cyn- 
ical individual, having no faith in goodness, and no delight 
except in unveiling hypocrisy and sin. In fact the re- 
porter is usually a college graduate, who has an im- 
mense pride in his profession, a legitimate sense of his 
own importance as the representative of thousands or 
hundreds of thousands of readers, and the same emo- 
tions and ambitions as other normal men. He wants 
his children, if he has any, to grow up to be useful men 
and women, and he is willing to help in any good work 
that will benefit them and the children of the com- 
munity at large. 

It is a deplorable fact that many "good people" are 
needlessly irritating to reporters and newspaper editors. 
No plan of publicity can be effective which does not 
begin by an understanding of the men who make our 
newspapers and a cordial relationship with them. 

Jesus would have gotten on with reporters famously. 
Had there been newspapers in Jerusalem, every news- 
paper man would have protested in his own heart against 



RELIGIOUS PUBLICITY 181 

the Crucifixion, whether the poHcy of the paper allowed 
him to protest publicly or not. On the contrary, it is 
quite conceivable that the feeding of the early Christians 
to the lions would have awakened no such protests. 
Whatever their courage and faith, there can be no doubt 
that some of the early Christians were not the easiest 
people in the world to live with. Tertullian, for ex- 
ample, made no concealment of the fact that all the 
world, with the exception of himself and a few others, 
was destined to be damned and that he was glad of it. 
The average man dislikes any individual who gives an 
unpleasant impression of a consciousness of moral su- 
periority, and the reporter is just an average man. 

Six facts should be remembered by all who want the 
help of newspaper men: 

1. They resent being used, but they enjoy — as most 
men enjoy — being consulted. Let them get the idea that 
you are trying to "put one over on them," and they will 
thwart you at every turn. They take pleasure in deny- 
ing publicity to those who, in their judgment, are seek- 
ing it for selfish ends. They hate self-advertisers. On 
the other hand, the right kind of pastor or federation 
secretary has often laid his problem before them, say- 
ing, "Tell me what I ought to do," and has not merely 
enlisted their support, but has been surprised to have 
them feel a personal responsibility for the success of his 
plans. 

2. They have a sixth sense for detecting insincerity 
and self-exploitation. They have little use for the preach- 
er who proclaims the Gospel on Sunday and is rude to 
them on Monday : or for the layman who makes con- 



182 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

spicuous contributions but is notorious as a bad em- 
ployer. 

3. They have no knowledge of differing creeds, but 
are much appealed to by evidence of united effort and 
effective work. 

4. They are accustomed to being trusted implicitly. 
One of the members of this Commission was a reporter 
assigned to cover President Taft one summer. The 
President had an appointment with the newspaper men 
at three o'clock one afternoon, but four members of his 
Cabinet had driven down for lunch and the discussion 
was so important and lasted so long that he forgot the 
appointment. As he drove away from the house in his 
machine he saw the newspaper men on the lawn, stopped 
the machine, apologized, and said : 

'*\Ve have just had a very important meeting. The 
members of the Cabinet will tell you all about it. Just 
see them." 

The members of the Cabinet came down, sat on the 
lawn beside the newspaper men, and proceeded to un- 
fold the whole inner history of one of the most im- 
portant controversies of the Taft administration. 
Nothing was held back; nothing concealed. When they 
had concluded one of the newspaper men said: 

"And, now, !Mr. Secretary, what are we to print?" 

Every man understood that what had been told was 
told in confidence. No one of them would for one min- 
ute have thought of betraying that confidence. The 
story which was printed was the story which was 
agreed upon by all of them — the four Cabinet members 
and the four newspaper men together. 



RELIGIOUS PUBLICITY 183 

Accustomed to being the repository of such confidences, 
it is easy to understand the resentment of newspaper 
men when they find church meetings held behind closed 
doors; when preachers say, "I am too busy to see you 
now"; or **I can't furnish you with a synopsis of what 
I am going to say ; you will have to get it at the meeting." 

The humblest newspaper reporter who comes up to 
ask a question after the service is more important than 
the millionaire who comes up to say that it was a won- 
derful address. For the newspaper reporter represents 
perhaps 500,000 people. And he knows it. 

5. Remember that newspaper criticism, however un- 
pleasant on occasions, performs a great public service. 
One of the directors of a great insurance company 
years ago was seeking to persuade the board that the 
company ought to publish its whole statement of assets 
in detail in the newspapers. 

"But some day we'll make a bad investment," a di- 
rector objected. "Do you want to publish that?" 

To which the progressive member replied: "If you 
know its going to be published you will be much less 
likely to make a bad investment." 

Every public institution — ^the Church among the rest — 
should perform every action as if it expected the whole 
thing to be printed on the front pages of the news- 
papers every day. Don't shut reporters out because 
you think something foolish may be said in the meeting 
and reported. Let them in; remember that they are 
there; and be much less likely to say anything foolish. 

6. Remember that if one would have friends he "must 



184 COMAIUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

show himself friendly." The federation wants pub- 
licity: the reporters want news. Frequently the secre- 
tary or a pastor comes across news items that have no 
direct relation to church work, but are very welcome 
to the newspapers. Pass these items along. Reporters 
are glad to do nice things for people who are taking a 
little trouble to do nice things for them. 

Expert Advertising 

This Commission has rejected any thought of making 
its report a technical discussion of publicity. Every 
federation w^ould do well to subscribe to Printers' Ink, 

185 Madison Ave., New York, which is the weekly 
trade paper of the advertising fraternity. In every 
number are discussions and suggestions that will be 
stimulating to the secretary who wants to make his pub- 
licity constantly more effective. 

The Church's Unused Helpers 

The Commission believes that the problem before most 
federations, however, is not only how to use publicity, 
but still better how to understand and use publicit^^ men. 
Not how to learn to write an advertisement, but how 
to enlist the cooperation and enthusiasm of the adver- 
tising experts of the community. There are experts in 
every city. They consist of the owners and editors of 
the newspapers, in matters of publicity; and of adver- 
tising agents and the advertising managers of corpo- 
rations and stores, where advertising is concerned. 

Suppose the pastors representing the churches in any 
federation were to give a dinner at the home of some 



RELIGIOUS PUBLICITY 185 

prominent layman, inviting the leading advertising men 
of the city. Suppose the federation secretary were to 
say: "We want to know how we can most effectively 
use advertising in making the Church of Jesus Christ 
an effective agent for all good things in this community. 
We want your counsel and help." 

Those men would certainly respond. They would say : 

"First of all, you must survey your task. That is 
what every 'business man does in entering a new market. 

"Second, you must determine exactly what you want 
the advertising to accomplish. Is it to get more people 
to church? Is it to show the range and scope of the 
Church's activities?" 

They would help the average federation immensely 
to clarify its own thinking, for that is what they are 
helping their customers to do every day. Their survey 
would create news. And they would produce a cam- 
paign which would be fitted to the needs of that com- 
munity, and based on its local conditions. An execu- 
tive secretary on taking up the work of a federation 
should get two or three of the leading and most influ- 
ential men of the city who are interested in the work 
of the federation to introduce him to the editors and 
presidents of the leading daily papers. In this interview 
he can outline the program of the federation and coun- 
sel with them as to publicity. 

Use the men who are waiting to be used. Go to them 
as seekers after expert guidance. Have clearly in mind 
what you want to do; and get them to tell you how to 
do it. If this Commission can get that principle of 
action adopted in federations everywhere, the results 



186 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

will be far greater than if these pages were devoted to 
educating secretaries and pastors by correspondence in 
what is now a profession, to the mastery of which some of 
the brightest men in the business world give their lives. 

What Has the Church to Sell? 

Not meetings; not pleas for funds; but the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ — this is what the Church has to advertise. 
The more our advertising emphasizes the fundamental 
contribution of Christianity to life, the more it will suc- 
ceed. The place of women and children in our modern 
world; the place of education; the aspirations of labor; 
our hospitals and children's homes — all these are results 
of the Gospel. 

If we are to expect the press and the public to think 
of the Church in large terms we must think of it in large 
terms ourselves. The churches of every city ought some- 
how to prepare and present once a year, at least, a pic- 
ture of what the influence of the Gospel of Christ has 
meant in that community during the preceding twelve 
months. The picture should be full of specific human 
interest details. People pass over statistics but they are 
interested in people. They will respond to a picture of 
the Church's work in terms of human lives. Such a 
panorama would be a piece of real publicity, worth ten 
times the same amount of space in notices of meetings. 

Two Simple Rules 

One of the best rules ever laid down for successful 
selling through advertising is so simple that it is almost 
obvious : Tell your story in terms of the reader's inter- 
est. Test it on yourself. Think of the last advertising 



RELIGIOUS PUBLICITY 187 

appeal that aroused a favorable reaction. The manu- 
facturer was telling his story in terms of your interest, 
not his; if he was selling a cereal, he made you feel 
that its use would add to your pleasure, not his; if he 
was selling an automobile he made you feel dissatisfied 
even to think of owning some other make of car. 

Another good rule: Translate your message. Whether 
you are advertising a church festival or simply publish- 
ing a text for a sermon, translate your message so that 
even a child may understand. Remember that your 
reading audience is cold, listless, disinterested. They 
will not take the trouble to decipher problems. Trans- 
late for them, just as the manufacturer of a technical 
product does when he advertises. To take an actual 
example from a church notice, "What This Town Owes 
Your Boy" will bring more fathers from the golf links 
into church on Sunday morning than, "The Responsi- 
bility of Adolescence"; yet the same sermon might be 
equally fitting to either topic. 

District Grouping of Church Advertisements 

The church notices and advertisements in most com- 
munities are usually printed in one section of the local 
newspaper without especial regard to order. Here is an 
opportunity through a slight rearrangement to emphasize 
the benefit of each, by simply grouping the names of the 
different churches according to geographical sections or 
districts. For example, Pine Hill: Baptist and Metho- 
dist; North Side: Congregational, Lutheran, and Meth- 
odist; South Side: Reformed, Episcopalian, and Cath- 
olic. The larger the town and the more transient the 
population, the more the convenience of such grouping 



188 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

by recognized districts will appeal to those in the neigh- 
borhood of each church. 

Motion Pictures 

All that has been said regarding newspaper men and 
advertising men applies with equal force to the motion 
picture men of the city. In general they are not church 
attendants, to be sure ; many of them are not Gentiles ; 
but that makes no difterence. They depend for their 
prosperity upon the patronage of the young people of 
the communit}'. Most of them are fathers ; all other 
things being equal they would rather show clean, decent 
films than the other kind. 

They, too, can be drafted into the service of the 
Church : and the approach to them, as to the news- 
papers and the advertising agencies, should be, not "We 
want you to do so and so for us," but "We are trying 
to accomplish such and such results for the community; 
can you advise us how motion pictures can help to that 
end?" 

Organization of a Publicity Commission 

The Commission believes that wherever possible a 
federation should have a publicity- secretary. He should 
be a man (or she should be a woman) who has had 
reportorial experience and who is persona grata in local 
newspaper offices. The editors should be consulted in 
the selection. Having such a man, the churches should 
trust him and use him. In so far as possible the feder- 
ation office ought to become the voice of the churches 
of the cit}-. To it the newspapers should look for their 
church news, and from it statements should go out on 



RELIGIOUS PUBLICITY 189 

matters where the views of the Church are of interest. 

It will be wise, in most instances, to have a Publicity 
Committee made up of men of standing and judgment, 
with a chairman who will be responsible for decision in 
matters of policy, and without whose approval no im- 
portant statement will go out. 

The Publicity Committee should meet weekly, say 
about Thursday at the lunch hour, to discuss such news 
as should be given to the papers for the Saturday issue. 
This committee should be on the outlook constantly for 
events that are to transpire in the future, so that the 
federation may get behind any movement that is worth 
while and get publicity along with it for helping in such 
worthy undertakings. There is nothing that concerns 
the moral, social, and economic life of the community 
in which the federation should not interest itself. 

Functioning of the Commission 

The right man, having the confidence of the churches 
on one hand and of the newspapers on the other, can 
gradually make the federation offices the headquarters 
to which the newspapers will turn for religious intelli- 
gence and opinion. 

He will know in advance when important speakers 
are to come to town, when they arrive, and where they 
will be entertained. He will see that they are inter- 
viewed by reporters, or will interview them himself, 
seeking to bring out in the interview some point of prac- 
tical interest and value in connection with the local 
program. 

He will have brief quotations in advance from Sun- 
day sermons and will prepare them for the press. He 



190 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

will, with advertising counsel, handle the Saturday re- 
ligious page, with its announcements and its church 
advertising. 

He will release the facts of the local survey, as they 
develop. 

He will know where work of special human interest 
is being carried on, either by one church or by the feder- 
ation, and will either arrange to have it reported in a 
feature story, or will report it himself for one of the 
papers. He will know, of course, that a "feature story" 
can be furnished to only one paper, and will usually be 
printed by none if sent to all. In every city there are 
rescue missions, or hospitals, or forum meetings, or fifty 
other sorts of activity that the newspapers frequently 
neglect simply because they are not notified. All events 
that are news should be covered; and the "tip" should 
come to the papers from the federation office. For all 
these activities are religious activities in the broadest 
sense, and the Church should share in whatever credit 
attaches to them. 

A publicity man can do a more complete job with a 
camera; and in the larger cities he should have contact 
with the motion picture camera men. Newspapers will 
use a story far more quickly if it is accompanied by a 
good news picture: and every year there are certain 
church events that might well be taken on the film, and 
shown in the local motion picture theaters. 

Specific Channels of Publicity 

The Commission recognizes that a publicity secretary 
giving full time, or even part time, is possible only for 



RELIGIOUS PUBLICITY 191 

the larger federations. In smaller cities the secretary 
will necessarily have to perform these functions as well 
as the executive duties of the office. 

Such secretaries, in their consultation with local ex- 
perts, will do well to canvass the possibilities of the 
following sources and channels of publicity: 

1. The religious census. It should be taken at regu- 
lar periods. When the facts are all in hand, get the 
help of a first-class newspaper man in playing up their 
news value. 

2. Statistics. Careful analyses of the government 
census returns should be made, as they appear from time 
to time. The Health Department, Police Department, 
Department of Charities, and others, are all gathering 
data which are useful in a federation office and have 
news value if presented promptly and properly. 

3. Pictures. There are artists in every city who will 
help if enlisted. An advertisement or poster should 
have a picture where there is any possible way of 
using it. 

4. Permanent exhibit. Often a permanent exhibit 
may be set up at some central point, illustrating by 
charts and models the influence of the churches in the 
community. Such an exhibit is a source of news; and 
the papers are glad to tell about it. 

5. Church bulletin boards. Too often bulletin boards 
are entirely neglected or used only indifferently. Prop- 
erly used they give the impression of life and alertness; 
and passers-by should get the habit of looking to them 
for real news. 



192 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

6. Mailing list. The federation should maintain an 
up-to-date mailing list of men and women whom it may 
be important to reach at short notice. In the prepara- 
tion of letters and literature to be sent to these people, 
expert help should be invited. Generally speaking, let- 
ters, pamphlets, and booklets are subject to very large 
discount for waste. Analyze your own mail ; remember 
how large a percentage of the material sent to you is 
never read. Then make it a rule not to issue anything 
in the way of literature unless the work which that 
piece of literature is expected to perform has been very 
thoughtfully analyzed. 

7. Conferences. Great industrial corporations make 
it a point to bring their salesmen together once a year 
at least for a conference. The speakers at such con- 
ferences are not merely the officers of the company, but 
also men from outside who are recognized as leaders 
in their respective lines. It will be worth while in any 
city for the pastors whose churches are represented in 
the federation to devote a meeting now and then wholly 
to the subject of publicity. The value of such a con- 
ference, addressed by local experts, is twofold. It is 
stimulating to the men addressed and it enlists the in- 
terest of the men who are invited to appear on the 
program, as it sets them to thinking constructively about 
the problems of the Church. 



CHAPTER IX 

SECURING AND TRAINING EXECU- 
TIVE SECRETARIES 

One of the most impressive proofs of the unfaihng 
vitality of the Church of God is its capacity for fresh 
and varying manifestations of its Hfe in meeting the 
successive demands of the social order. The power to 
put forth new agencies and activities as occasion may 
require is the token of ability to adjust itself to a changing 
environment, and so not only to survive but to assume 
leadership in the creation of a worthier society. 

This has been one of the most patent evidences of its 
efficiency through the centuries. Out of the most depress- 
ing conditions it has risen with awareness and urgency to 
perform its sacred task of arousal and direction at mo- 
ments of crisis. A score of movements within the Church, 
such as the reawakening of Europe by the preaching of 
St. Francis and his followers, the breaking forth of the 
reformation spirit from England to Italy, the emergence 
of the Sunday school in answer to a need of British child- 
hood, the creation of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion as a striking adventure of faith, the organization of 
the great missionary societies in response to the voiceless 
appeal of the non-Christian world, the young people's 
movement that has released a flood of life-giving waters 
for the enrichment of the religious areas, and many other 
manifestations of the Spirit of God in the Church, cul- 
minating in these last days in the various phases of the 
cooperative movement, testify to this fact. 

193 



194 COMMUNITY PROGIL\MS FOR CHURCHES 

The most notable expression of this vital force in the 
Church today is the heightened interest in interdenomina- 
tional fellowship. The sinful anomaly of competing com- 
munions has become an increasing scandal, and filled the 
hearts of a multitude of the friends of our Lord with dis- 
quiet. Sectarian conditions that prevailed uncondemned 
before the Great War are seen in a lurid and sinister light 
since that world Gethsemane. The souls of great numbers 
of Christians are deeply concerned to reduce as far as 
possible the friction and wastage resulting from the for- 
mer unrestrained rivalry among religious bodies. Four 
impressive efforts to achieve a larger measure of unity 
have taken form in recent times. These are the world 
Conference on Faith and Order, the American Council 
for Organic Union, the Federal Council of the Churches 
of Christ in America, and the Interchurch World Move- 
ment. These various plans differ in their specific aims and 
methods, but they are symptomatic of the longing for 
closer fellowship which is growing in the Church today, 
and is destined to become more explicit and compelling in 
the future. 

Closely related in spirit, though quite different in ex- 
pression, is the movement for local cooperation among the 
churches in towns, cities, and other communities. In- 
creasingly is it conceded, as stated in the basic declaration 
of this Convention, that "In any place where two or more 
Christian churches are located near each other, they ought 
to be related in some form of council, committee, or fed- 
eration, for the performance of vital community tasks." 
In the nature of the case a congregation of a particular 
faith and order is more intimately related to a neighbor- 
ing church of different denominational affiliation than it 



TRAINING EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES 195 

is to one of its own communion in another community. 
This principle has not always had recognition. But 
it is becoming increasingly imperious in its insistence. 

The Larger Demand for Executive Leadership in the 
Growing Program of Interdenominationalism 

These recently developed types of interdenominational 
relationship, and particularly the last, demand an order of 
executive leadership not hitherto required. The sudden 
rise and enormous expansion of the Interchurch World 
Movement have made upon the churches unprecedented 
demands for leadership for which there could not be any 
adequate preparation. It has been an emergency, met 
as fully and competently as circumstances permitted. 
But in the cases of the local church federations, now com- 
ing so rapidly and inevitably into being, there is per- 
ceived the outline of a new and permanent vocation. For 
it is clear that in every forward-looking community 
there will be required something in the nature of a church 
federation. The recognition of this necessity as basic 
already implies the need of such a chosen and trained 
leadership as will meet the highly specialized requirements 
of the emerging profession. 

No one sensitive to the facts can doubt that it is a new 
Christian calling that is taking form. It is a vocation de- 
manding unique qualities and a special discipline. It is 
a new sort of work, with a new technique and a new 
consciousness. It is different from the ministry, the mis- 
sionary task, the work of the Y. M. C. A. secretary, or 
that of the director of religious education or of the social 
worker. In some regards it is more arduous and difficult 



196 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

than any of these, chiefly for the reason that it is of such 
recent origin as to be lacking as yet in those forms of 
procedure which older vocations have acquired. Perhaps 
the devotion and prompt adjustment to new situations ex- 
hibited so admirably in a host of the war workers furnish 
a criterion and a starting point for this important work. 
The increasing standardization of federation programs 
will facilitate the relation of suitable men to them, and 
yet the magnitude of the task of securing and suitably 
training the large number of men needed calls for the co- 
operation of the strongest and most enthusiastic leaders 
in the churches and the seminaries in meeting the demand. 

The councils and federations of churches now in ex- 
istence employ about fifty executive secretaries. Other 
similar organizations are coming into being continually. 
The demand for additional secretaries is becoming stead- 
ily stronger. To find the men who are competent to fill 
these positions is perhaps the most difficult task in the co- 
operative movement. 

Qualities Demanded in the New Christian Calling of 
Executive Secretaries 

As in the survey of the qualities which ought to char- 
acterize the candidate for one of the religious vocations 
to which reference has been made, it would be easy to ar- 
range a list of requirements which naturally occur to one 
who is seeking an ideal leader. He should have all the 
excellences and none of the defects. But these supermen 
are not often within the reach of our federations, any 
more than they are available for churches, missionary 
boards, or Christian Associations. There are certain 



TRAINING EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES 197 

irreducible limits of fitness, however, below which no 
large measure of efficiency is to be expected. 

In addition to a convinced and convincing Christian 
character, and an enthusiastic devotion to the work com- 
mitted to him, such a person needs the strength and win- 
someness of personality which make possible his leader- 
ship among the extremely varying types of people with 
whom he will be obligated to work. He will need execu- 
tive ability and organizing power far more than in most 
vocations. He must be an administrator of many and 
complex affairs, with an unusual degree of business 
sense in their adjustment. 

An important part of the equipment of a successful 
executive secretary is a certain amount of training in 
business methods, so that he may be able to secure the 
largest measure of efficiency from his staff. This is of 
particular significance in connection with the larger fed- 
erations. It is important that such an executive should 
know how to organize an office, how to delegate work 
to different members of his staff, how to choose wisely 
his personnel, and how to fix salary and other schedules. 
His work is somewhat akin to that of a business manager. 
There are few features of his work more important than 
the development of office efficiency and economy. Even 
a proper filing system is not without great importance in 
the efficiency of an office. These suggestions need not 
involve an ambitious course in business methods, but some 
familiarity with that area of administration will prove of 
value. 

He must have the church mind. This does not imply 
necessarily the training and experience of an ecclesiastic, 
but it involves familiarity with the problems and vo- 



198 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

cabulary of local church work, the realm in which most 
of those with whom he will be associated perform their 
religious duties as ministers or laymen. For this reason 
a layman, with no other church training and experience 
than such as comes in the usual activities of church- 
membership would be likely to find himself at some dis- 
advantage as compared with one who understood some- 
thing of the technology of church ministries. 

He needs to have the interchurch mind. He will 
naturally have association with one of the Christian 
communions, but he must be above the sky line of sec- 
tarian prejudice and bias. The incapacity of some men 
who undertake interdenominational service to rise above 
the limitations of the sectarian spirit furnishes illustra- 
tion of a danger against which the executive of a federa- 
tion must arm himself if his work is not to prove in- 
effective and frustrate. The illuminating character of 
the current movements for cooperation already alluded 
to is certain to prove a stimulating element in his ad- 
justment to the interdenominational attitude. He must 
be sensitive to the fact that he is not merely the advocate 
of his own local organization, but as well the interpreter 
of the cooperative movement, and particularly the federa- 
tion movement, in its nation-wide form. To that wider 
manifestation of the interchurch spirit he must bring an 
unfailing and confident loyalty. 

Further, he requires an interclass mind. The churches 
to which his vocation is related will embrace many sorts 
of people. It is a rare pastor who can cultivate the same 
interest in all his people. Some are far more congenial 
than others. The problem of the federation executive 
is even more difficult and diverse. Yet his sympathies 



TRAINING EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES 199 

must not be relaxed in the face of this broader demand. 
The pastor is bound to think in terms of his parish. The 
man of whom we are thinking must graduate his interest 
and sympathies to the community as a whole. His 
must be no mere parochial sentiment. Both within and 
outside of the churches are the folk with whom his in- 
terests lie, and only in the attainment of this totality of 
concern can he prove in the highest degree efficient. 
Always he keeps in mind the fact that the Church has a 
unique responsibility, the furnishing of the spiritual ideal 
and the spiritual dynamic for community undertakings. 

Omce more, he ought to have an interorganizational 
mind. In attempting to bring to the wide and intricate 
needs of his community, large or small, the interest of 
the churches, and in turn to relate the churches to com- 
munity ends, he will come into relation with all the 
groups organized for specific objectives within the wide 
circle of community welfare, whether civic, social, recrea- 
tional, or philanthopic. It is some part of his task to 
know all that is going on at the hands of other organiza- 
tions than his own in the areas of charity, amusement, 
and employment. He should understand something of 
the problems which confront these other organizations, 
and ascertain in what manner the churches can cooperate 
with them with the greatest efficiency and economy. Such 
problems are those of the treatment of dependent classes, 
like widows and orphans, the problem of modern charity ; 
those connected with the proper service of the boy and 
girl away from home, the problem of modern recreation 
and supervision ; and the problem of the men and women 
facing difficult industrial questions, especially that of un- 
employment. The efficient federation executive should 



200 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

be able to appreciate the nature of these problems and to 
cooperate with the agencies which are attempting to solve 
them. This is as truly a part of the work of the Church 
as is evangelism or religious education. 

These varied forms of acquaintanceship and sympathy 
do not imply expert knowledge of their technical appli- 
cation. It is not essential that a federation secretary 
should be the master of all the departments of his organi- 
zation. In fact it is not possible for him to be. He 
neither performs nor directs all the work. To attempt 
to do so would be to defeat its purpose. It is his function 
rather to select with sympathy and insight the people 
best fitted to project the federation programs in the va- 
rious areas of its activity. 

If a plan of religious education is to be projected, he 
need not be the best authority on that theme, but he must 
be prepared to bring together those who are capable of 
performing this task, and see to it that they prepare 
the program and bring it to efficient expression. He may 
not even know the language of industrial relationships, 
but he must find those who do know it, and who know 
the responsibility of the Church as the instrument of 
spiritual truth by which these relationships are to be 
made Christian. The same is true of publicity or evange- 
lism, of missions or international relationships. As time 
goes on the secretary will discover that he has matricu- 
lated in a wonderfully stimulating university through his 
contact with such expert leaders. 

A federation executive ought to have a certain degree 
of platform ability. There will be many occasions on 
which he will need to interpret his work to public as- 
semblies, and secure their commitment to the programs 



TRAINING EXEUCTIVE SECRETARIES 201 

of his organziation. Yet the value of eloquence is easily 
overestimated. The ability to tell the story of federation 
in clear, concise, business-like language is the important 
thing. The gifts of the preacher will not be a disad- 
vantage, but they are of secondary importance. If he can 
formulate the plans and execute them, he can usually 
provide them with some sort of utterance, his own or that 
of another. He may well recognize the fact that there 
is a certain discretion in allowing the ministers of his 
group to do as much as possible of the public speaking 
in its behalf. The loyalty of the ministers to a secretary 
is often in proportion to the extent to which he puts 
them forward on public occasions. 

Of even greater importance to the permanent effective- 
ness of a secretary is such an appreciation of the value 
and sacredness of his work that he shall think of it less 
as a job or even a profession, but rather as a vocation, a 
holy calling, which is not to be given up but held in 
reverence as a life task. There may be a danger that 
secretaries will regard their positions as belonging to 
them by right of occupancy, and outlive their usefulness; 
but there is even greater danger that they may set too 
light a value on their work, and permit themselves to 
relinquish for no sufficient reason a ministry that ought 
to enrich itself from year to year with added values. 

The sort of enthusiasm which comes from the percep- 
tion of the high calling of the office will carry a sincere 
and consecrated man over many difficultes. Present per- 
plexities yield to a vision of the dignity and importance 
of the service he is rendering. Probably there is no 
calling in which the fine virtues of tact and discretion are 
more imperative. The secretary must have an infinite 



202 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

capacity for patience and optimism. Hardest of all to 
attain, perhaps, is that combination of sensitiveness to 
counsel and ability to endure the misapprehension and 
criticism which are inseparable from so conspicuous an 
office as his. Such a mingling of delicate and fine sym- 
pathies with imperviousness to offense is of inestimable 
importance in this vocation. 

Above everything else there must be the recognition 
of the religious values of the work. It is possible for a 
secretary to become so absorbed in the social and civic 
interests of his organization that he fails to perceive that 
his greatest work is as a spiritual leader in his com- 
munity, a pastor of pastors, a revealer of the urgency 
and supremacy of the Kingdom of God. If a high esti- 
mate is set upon the qualifications of such a man, it is 
because of the greatness of the office to which he is 
chosen. There is no finer challenge to leadership in all 
the world than that which comes to one selected to be an 
executive secretary of a council or federation of churches. 

From What Sources These Executives Are to Be 

Recruited 

In spite of the length of time during which some of 
the federations have been in existence, the movement 
as a whole is of recent origin. Therefore there is no 
developed technique of secretarial selection. There are 
three sources from which efforts are usually made to 
secure secretaries today. First. Most of those engaged 
in this work were living in the town or city in which 
the federation was organized. Some minister or layman, 
usually the former, possessing qualifications for execu- 



TRAINING EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES 203 

tive work, was chosen. There is, of course, a distinct 
advantage in having a man who is acquainted with the 
place, and is favorably known there. Second. If no 
such man was available, the federations have sought sec- 
retaries from cities in which the work has been carried on 
for some time; that is, they have looked for a man who 
knew something of federation work through experience 
in a place where it has been in operation, though not in 
official relationship with it. A minister who has served 
on federation commissions or committees has been in con- 
tact with a school of methods thereby. This type of 
selection is growing in favor. The increase in the num- 
ber of federations makes more abundant this source of 
supply. Third. If a committee does not find a secre- 
tary either at home or in an organized city, then it must 
go further afield and choose the man who gives most 
promise of success. 

It is apparent that all these are opportunist plans. The 
men have been found, but in many cases it required a 
long search, during which the newly formed federation 
was threatened with death. The coming of the Inter- 
church World Movement into the field with its insistent 
need of a great force of workers in an incalcuably short 
space of time, still further complicated the problem. 
In spite of the difficulties encountered, there has been 
accumulated a body of experience and policy on which 
the newer secretaries can draw for their instruction. In 
the earlier days, from five to ten years ago, the secre- 
taries had to go into the laboratory and make their own 
experiments. The newer secretary can profit to a degree 
by the experiences of these men. Still there is great need 
of originality and experimentation. The program of the 



204 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

secretary of a successful federation Is still in the making. 

It is evident that as yet there is no assured source of 
supply for the federations that are coming into existence 
so rapidly. It is within safe limits to say that every new- 
federation organized during the past five years has first 
called two or three of the best-known secretaries, who 
have steadfastly refused to change their locality. In 
some recent instances strong ministers have been se- 
lected from cities with flourishing federations. In other 
cases men trained in federation methods in some associate 
relation have been chosen. In still other instances, as 
in the change of pastorates, experienced executives have 
been called from very important fields to head a federa- 
tion enterprise which seemed by its promise to justify 
a change. 

But there is needed some more comprehensive and con- 
structive plan than has yet been devised. The fact that a 
very considerable degree of success has been attained even 
with the imperfect methods of the past is no argument 
in favor of their continuance. Undoubtedly 'it will require 
some time to perfect a plan of supply that will be adequate 
to the situation. Probably for some years to come the 
larger number of executive secretaries will be taken di- 
rectly from the ministry, as offering the nearest approach 
to a school of methods. Those who have made a record 
for efficient service in pastorates will appear to be the 
most available men. Some will come to the executive 
work from the Y. M. C. A., particularly those who have 
had war experience, and originally came from the 
pastorate. 

But as time goes on and the federation movement 
grows, an increasing number will come from theological 



TRAINING EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES 205 

seminaries and divinity schools in which their attention 
has been called to the opportunities offered by federation 
work, and some competent instruction has been given in 
the technique of the new vocation. This makes it im- 
perative that in all forward-looking institutions of this 
order there shall be recognition of federation activities as 
among the important callings for men of earnestness and 
power, and courses and lectureships shall be provided in 
preparation for this as for the other Christian callings. 
The attention of all men in the training schools of the 
churches needs to be called to this field as offering unique 
advantages to those who possess the requisite abilities and 
the right spirit. 

Methods of Training Which May Be Required, and 
Which May Meet the Present and Future Demand 

There would seem to be two plans of preparing men 
for the work of executive administration in local church 
federations. The first of these has been mentioned, but 
must be recognized as offering the fairest promise for an 
adequate force in the future. It is that of technical train- 
ing in the classroom, under competent instruction. Nearly 
all the Christian callings are provided with this type of 
preparatory discipline. In this regard the ministry has 
the advantage of long history. But the growing pro- 
visions made for the education of missionaries, directors 
of religious education, social service workers, the Y. M. 
and Y. W. C. A. secretaries, make evident the obligation 
of the educational institutions to meet the newer needs, 
and their desire to make proof of their ministries. The 
disciplines that may well be included in a suitable course 
of study for this purpose will be considered presently. 



206 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

The second method that has approved itself in prac- 
tically every type of professional training is that of some 
form of apprenticeship in connection with successful 
organizations of the desired sort. The Jews of the classic 
period brought this form of training to an efficient level 
as a supplement to the formal discipline of the syna- 
gogue and the schools of the rabbis. To an increasing 
extent the seminaries and divinity schools have employed 
the same method, either in connection with their class- 
room instruction or in a cadetship following it. 

There is every reason to encourage this type of train- 
ing for executive secretaries. In those cases in which no 
seminary experience is possible, it will prove a helpful, 
though not wholly adequate, preparation for the work. 
Where the seminary is located in a city with a strong 
federation, there will be ample opportunity to supplement 
the work of the classroom with practical clinic service 
under the direction of the office force. Furthermore, it 
would be of great advantage if those who take the courses 
in the educational institutions could avail themselves of 
the advantages of an apprenticeship covering several 
months in some efficient city federation before taking up 
their professional duties. This plan would offer the 
double value of training for the future secretary, and 
very useful service to the federation, either gratis or 
partly compensated. 

Training Courses for Executive Secretaries 

In securing data for this section of the report, a con- 
siderable body of correspondence has been received from 
the heads of institutions for the training of Christian 



TRAINING EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES 207 

leaders both in the east and west. In most cases the 
demand for recognition of this new vocation, or at least 
for an attitude of mind hospitable to it, has been con- 
ceded without question, and an earnest desire to cooperate 
has been manifested. 

It is frankly stated in some of these communications 
that the entire student body in these institutions would be 
helped by studies that visualize the present condition of 
Christianity in the United States, particularly the strength 
and weakness of divided Protestantism. The time has 
come, it is affirmed, for a requirement in every theological 
seminary that every graduate shall be familiar not only 
with the history and polity of his own communion, but 
in a general way with those of other religious bodies, at 
least the leading ones. There is needed the development 
of the interchurch attitude of mind on the part of all who 
are to be leaders of the churches. It is asserted that this 
is important both for its own sake in the broadening of 
the vision and sympathies of ministers and other church 
workers and as a means of satisfying the growing de- 
mands of the laymen who support these institutions 
for a less denominational and a more efficient type of 
Christian leadership. 

For this reason some of the heads of seminaries desire 
to incorporate in their curricula, or are already adding, 
such courses as shall give to all their students an intelli- 
gent interest in the present forms of cooperative work, 
including federation. This sentiment appears to be 
rather common. The need is felt for a competent knowl- 
edge of church federation on the part of all the students, 
in order that it may be appreciated and aided in their later 
professional years. 



208 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

In the discussion of the possibility of providing courses 
for the training of executive secretaries, there is a variety 
of opinion. One president says that in the crowded con- 
dition of the curriculum it is quite impossible to add any 
further courses. One writes that in the course in Pas- 
toral Theology there is discussion of church federation 
as regards the minister's relation to it, but not from the 
point of view of administrative work. Others say that 
they would be glad to invite experts to give short courses 
to such of the student body as might desire specialized 
instruction in the technique of federation. In some in- 
stances brief summer courses are suggested for executive 
secretaries. 

A further step is taken by those among the correspon- 
dents who think the time may be at hand for the recogni- 
tion of the distinct class of leaders called federation sec- 
retaries, but incline to the belief that at present perhaps 
the best training for the men entering this profession is 
still the seminary course, supplemented by pastoral ex- 
perience, and as full a measure as possible of federation 
activity. More definite still is the proposal to organize 
an elective credit course in the principles and practice of 
church federation, with special reference to its service 
to the community. This course should include the best 
findings of the leaders of the federation movement, and 
should provide concrete methods of work. 

It is felt by several who write that there should be in 
every seminary a course or more on the relation of re- 
ligion to the social questions which are so important a 
part of competent training today. These would include 
housing, health, education, employment, recreation, and 
good government. One mentions specifically the relation 



TRAINING EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES 209 

of Christianity to childhood, old age, defective, depend- 
ent, and delinquent groups, and the immigrant — the six 
classes of special types of citizenship paralleling the six 
subjects of vital concern to all citizens. One commentator 
makes the suggestion that there is needed not only the 
interdenominational mind, but an interchurch diaconate, 
following the probable idea that the deacons of the early 
church were not selected primarily, if at all, to look after 
the poor, but rather the aliens from other communities, 
such as the immigrants are today. The food regulations 
of the Jewish-Christian Church were a part of this func- 
tion. In other words, they were a sort of immigrant 
welfare committee. 

One of the most expert of this group of educators 
writes : "Seminaries should certainly include in their cur- 
ricula courses suitable for the training of federation sec- 
retaries. A very large number of the courses in the sort 
of universities with which most of the seminaries are 
connected are pertinent to the training of such men. Such 
are the courses given in the making of surveys relative to 
church and society, denominational history, and the like. 
It would not be difficult to make up a group of courses 
sufficient for an entire year of specialization for men 
who are working in this field. I would suggest: (a) out- 
line courses dealing with denominational life so as to 
acquaint the prospective secretary with the points of view 
and policies of the various denominations with which he 
must deal; (b) special courses in the history of the fed- 
eration movement, together with the principles involved ; 
(c) sociological courses, especially those dealing with the 
rise of cities and rural life, the relations of church and 
society, the making of surveys, including instruction in 



210 COM>kfUXITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

the making of graphs; (d) courses in religious education, 
with special reference to teacher training. All these 
courses should be unified around a thesis which the stu- 
dent would write, and in preparation for which he would 
be introduced into the actual operation of some federa- 
tion, and work under personal direction." 

Another outline includes the topic of evangelism, com- 
ity, social agencies, civics, penal laws and institutions, re- 
hgious education, the local church. Christian Americani- 
zation, present-day economics, and office administration. 

A wery valuable comment is provided by an experi- 
enced social worker, whose s^Tnpathies with the work of 
federation are evident throughout the discussion. The 
following points are of special value. After speaking of 
the problems of modern charit}', recreation, supervision, 
and unemplo\Tnent, the comment continues: '*In order 
to appreciate the nature of these problems and to co- 
operate with agencies which are attempting to solve them, 
the executive secretaries of whom your Commission is 
thinking should be given, either in their regular educa- 
tional program or in their special professional training 
courses dealing (a) with the history- of social reform; 
(b) with the present stage of development of govern- 
ment machinery* and of volimtar}^ organizations for at- 
tacking these problems; and (c) that considerable body 
of doctrine which is now generally described by the term 
'Case Method of Treating Distress,' which implies first, 
sufficient knowledge of the sources of the distress ; second, 
resources for adequate and appropriate treatment; and 
third, personal serv*ice. Such training can, of course, be 
obtained in either of two ways; first, by introducing 
courses of this kind into the curricula of the professional 



TRAINING EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES 211 

schools through which the secretaries pass, and second, 
by estabHshing some kind of cooperation with the pro- 
fessional schools of social work (or of civics and phi- 
lanthropy). I should suppose that for a period, until the 
number of federations has increased and the supply of 
secretaries become more sufficient, the resources of the 
schools of civic and social work might be used. But as 
soon as possible either the whole or the most important 
part of this material ought to be embodied in a technical 
professional course. As to the methods of training, it 
seems to me that as in the case of the medical student 
or social worker in training, it is desirable to have, first, 
such material as is already available for presentation in 
the classroom so presented; second, to arrange for the 
student to do what might be called apprenticeship work 
or practice work under careful supervision; and third, 
to be given the opportunity of observing different lines 
of work in cases where it would not be profitable for 
him to spend time in doing the work himself." 

Proof of the fact that such definite courses are already 
being offered with specific reference to the training of 
federation secretaries is provided in a communication of 
which the following is an extract: "You may be in- 
terested to learn that we are organizing in the seminary 
a Department of Home Service, with a view of prepar- 
ing men for the specialized types of ministry demanded 
by the multiplication of agencies and the extension of the 
field of religious work. One of the objects we have in 
view is the preparation of men for executive work as 
secretaries of local federations. We are offering in this 
Department of Home Service courses dealing with social 
and industrial conditions, and with the principles and 



212 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

methods of social work, courses on interdenominational 
movements, the function of the Church in modern de- 
mocracy, and a course in surveys, statistics, and adminis- 
tration. In this manner men who have been at work in 
the various fields of home service may come to the sem- 
inary for a year of graduate work to fit themselves for 
larger responsibilities. It may be possible another year 
to offer a summer course or institute for executive sec- 
retaries of federations." 

All of those who discuss the problem from the stand- 
point of educational administration express the view that 
in addition to classroom instruction, something should be 
done to provide lectures on the general or specific phases 
of federation work. These suggestions range all the way 
from a single lecture, giving a presentation of the facts 
and methods of federation, to courses of lectures by care- 
fully selected interpreters of the movement, whose work 
should have a certain continuity from year to year. Such 
lectures, it is stated, might be given by men expert in the 
work of federation, or by interdenominational leaders, 
acquainted with various types of interchurch activity. It 
is felt that it is of importance to bring before the student 
body of the seminary men who can present a broad and 
illuminating view of the demands of the future upon 
those who are to occupy positions of leadership. Such 
men will be able to acquaint those going out to be pastors 
with the principles and methods of cooperative work, so 
that they may be able to take their part intelligently in 
such movements. It is even thought by some that suc- 
cessful secretaries should be released by their federa- 
tions for specific periods of lecture work in the semi- 
naries, to which they are likely increasingly to be invited. 



CHAPTER X 

THE CHURCH AND ITS NEW COOPERATIVE 

POWER 

By Dr. Robert E. Speer 

We should not be candid with ourselves if we slipped on 
without grave reflection into a rosy and optimistic con- 
sideration of this subject of cooperation today. There 
are some very real present difficulties which are confront- 
ing us. I do not say that they are graver or more numer- 
ous than the difficulties we have confronted before, al- 
though there are some who would say that. I do say 
that if they are graver and more numerous, we have also 
far richer assets and resources today with which to meet 
them. But whether they be more numerous and more 
grave or not, we shall not be wise if we slip past them 
with closed eyes. 

I wish to mention four of them as simply and sympa- 
thetically as possible, before going on to the positive and 
hopeful view. 

We are confronted, first of all, by the disappointment 
of the Interchurch World Movement. Please note I do 
not now say "the failure of the Interchurch World Move- 
ment" nor "the dissatisfaction with the Interchurch 
World Movement." I say the disappointment of the men 
and women who have worked in that Movement, and who 
had hoped, many of them, for what they have not 
achieved. Their disappointments would be diverse ; some 
of them perhaps would be disappointed at results at 
which others feel no regret, and vice versa. I imagine 

213 



214 COAIMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

the difficulty here will not be found in the actual grounds 
of disappointment, but in the attitude of mind which we 
who are gathered in this room, and many other men and 
women, take up with regard to them. We need to pray 
to be saved from the disposition to discover in the mis- 
takes that other people have made the occasion for our 
disappointment. It will be far better for us not to de- 
volve responsibilities upon others, but to assume the larg- 
est possible measure of responsibility each of us for 
himself ; for each one of us to ask, "What might I have 
said, or refrained from saying ? What might I have done, 
or refrained from doing? What might I have been, or 
not have been which might have yielded some different 
result?" 

There is a second difficulty in the disposition, wide- 
spread today, to detect and dwell upon failures and short- 
comings in all movements rather than upon their positive 
achievements and accomplishments. It is an easy error 
for us to fall into ; whereas, as a matter of fact, we should 
discover, if we will only be patient and wait, that God 
has been doing a great deal more than we know, and in 
the future some of those things that now we most lament, 
we shall then see the reason for and rejoice over, and 
discover that even in the midst of our mistakes and ap- 
parent failures God was working out something far 
better than our own original design. 

I have always liked a word of Henry W. Grady's 
in an address which he made to the Literary Societies of 
the University of Virginia, where he was speaking years 
ago of a current wave of pessimism that was passing over 
the land, and added that as for himself he always bet on 
sunshine in America. That was only a secular way of 



NEW COOPERATIVE POWER 215 

saying what Judson said in a Christian way; that our 
prospects are just as bright as the promises of God, and 
that no amount of disappointment and difficulties through 
which we pass have anything whatsoever to do with our 
purpose, except to constitute to us a challenge to rejoice 
in these things, and in spite of them to achieve the good 
and perfect and acceptable will of God. 

The third difficulty that we are confronting today is 
the spirit of peevishness and criticism which is abroad 
throughout the land, that questions everything, that 
thinks we are now in an unprecedented era of uncer- 
tainty and change, and that everything is elusive and 
slipping from us. 

"Fool ! All that is, at all, 
Lasts ever, past recall ; 
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure." 

And we must not let ourselves be swept off our feet 
today by the men who either never read history, or who 
are perpetually forgetting it. We are not passing any 
road untrodden by other feet; we are not drinking out 
of any cup untouched by other lips. Everything that 
we are experiencing today men passed through before 
us in times that to them were just as critical and diffi- 
cult as these. You remember the touch in Mr. Kipling's 
"Red Dog" where Mowgli goes off to find his friend Kaa, 
the old python, to ask him what to do in a great emer- 
gency in the jungle, and the lad sleeps in the old snake's 
coils as Kaa thinks back across the decades and the gen- 
erations and the centuries until he sees in the past the 
thing that now is. "Ah !" said he, "all that is has already 
been, and what shall be is only the memory of a for- 



216 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

gotten year striking backwards." We needn't be a bit 
afraid because today the things that we confront seem 
new and strange. If you read McMaster's "History of 
the American People" or turn back and bathe yourself 
in the days of the Reformation, or in the days of the bar- 
barian invasion of the Roman Empire, you will realize, if 
your imagination is alive, that what wx are passing 
through today is only our duplicate of great experiences 
through which the Fathers passed before us, and passed in 
faith not having received the promises; God having re- 
served some better thing for us that they without us 
might not be made perfect. 

There is only one other difficulty o£ which I would 
be speaking, and that is this org}^ of energism that we 
are passing through, that bids men everywhere to do 
something, not to be still and to know ; that robs us of 
the gains, and the absolutely essential gains, only reaped 
w^hen men sit down deliberately to think out their courses 
of action before they plunge. We have not taken time 
enough to put prayer and deep reflection into our plans 
of Christian activity. I think it was a true criticism 
that one of our British friends passed just a few months 
ago when he was here studying our American contem- 
porary religious movements. "Yes," said he in effect, 
as he went back, "you are painting a very big picture, 
but I don't think you are mixing brains enough with 
your paint." And while it was a rather painful criticism, 
it was just. W^e need far more grave study, far more 
deliberate thought, far more penetrating and intelligent 
setting of our schemes against great backgrounds, than 
we have ventured as yet to take time for. 

I speak of these four difficulties that confront us today 



NEW COOPERATIVE POWER 217 

as we face this problem of present cooperation, because 
every one of them is a difficulty that ought to be turned 
to a moral and spiritual asset and resource. 

And think what we have today to set over against them ! 
We have, first of all, such evidence as the Christian 
Church has never had in any previous generation that 
the movement of cooperation is absolutely undefeatable. 
If we could have killed this cooperative movement we 
would have done it by our shortcomings during the last 
five years, and the fact that the movement lives right on, 
stronger, more vigorous, more powerful today than it 
has ever been, is convincing evidence that nothing can 
stay it, or permanently obstruct or overthrow it. We 
know now beyond any peradventure'that we are working 
with God. It is clear to our minds as noonday that we 
have discovered one of His great and unmistakable pur- 
poses, and that a man who wants a cause — a cause re- 
garding which he need not have any misgiving — can just 
let his life go with all there is in it into this great cause, 
assured that he is giving himself to be used by God in 
working out His unquestionable purpose. 

In the second place, we have such evidence as no gener- 
ation before us has ever had of the necessity of those 
forms of cooperative action which compel men to ap- 
proach them jointly. It has been interesting to see the 
way our Roman Catholic brethren have been led in this 
matter. We think of them as a great compact body, 
whereas any of us who have personal friends among them 
know that they have the same problems of cooperation 
and coordination to deal with that we have among our 
Protestant organizations. It is interesting to see how. 



218 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

under the same pressure that we feel, they are themselves 
being welded together into new forms of common action. 
In the May number of The Catholic World, which my 
friend Father Burke of New York edits, there appeared 
an interesting account of the National Catholic Welfare 
Council, of which Father Burke is to be the Executive 
Secretary. This council has its headquarters in Wash- 
ington, and five district departments, with some of the 
ablest men in the Roman Catholic Church in America in 
charge of them — the Department of Education, the De- 
partment of Legislation, the Department of Social Activi- 
ties, the Department of Lay Activities and Movements, 
and the Department of Publicity. And they put wise men 
at the head of each one, in an effort to gather up into 
some kind of a central guidance and cooperative action 
the forces of this great body which had not been so com- 
pactly and unifiedly organized before. They have only 
seen what we have been seeing a long while; that there 
are things to be done that cannot be done by anybody, no 
matter how strong or devoted or purposeful that body 
may be, unless there is close and united cooperation. 

It is just as the late Bishop of London said to my 
friend Canon Gairdner of Cairo when he went to him 
years ago at the beginning of the Student Movement in 
Great Britain and asked whether the Anglican students 
might, without any feeling of limitation, throw themselves 
into this common movement for the sake of foreign mis- 
sions in non-Christian lands. Bishop Creighton told him 
he might do so without a moment's hesitation, because 
here was a task too gigantic for any Christian body, so 
gigantic not only in its geographical extent but in what 
it contemplated, that it would be preposterous for any 



NEW COOPERATIVE POWER 219 

Christian body to think that that task could fall to it 
alone. 

We are feeling such facts pressing down upon us to- 
day. We cannot evade them. We cannot conceal them. 
They are the simple pressure of the facts of the order 
that we are living in. There are certain great tasks that 
we of all Christian bodies, have got to look at with a 
common eye, and measure the obligation of with a com- 
mon conscience. 

(1) There are great activities of common propaganda 
lying behind these tasks which can never be at their maxi- 
mum in any body till they have behind them in every 
body the momentum and the pressure of the whole com- 
mon Christian tide. There are no reasons why a Presby- 
terian should make Jesus Christ known in Central Africa 
that are not equally valid for a Methodist or a Congre- 
gationalist; and those reasons become more valid on the 
Presbyterian conscience as they become backed by the 
whole mighty impulse of the common Christian con- 
viction. 

There are tasks of interpretative publicity which we 
have only begun to touch in America. We have been do- 
ing things so in the big, and without regard to the quality, 
that one of the most difficult and urgent tasks of all we 
have hardly undertaken at all, and we can never under- 
take it until we undertake it with some sort of a common 
consciousness. Mr. Basil Matthews has been set aside 
for it in Great Britain, and the product shows itself in 
all kinds of unostentatious ways. You will find it in the 
last issue of our American Review of Reviews — a long 
summary of an article of his dealing with interracial 



220 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

relations. They have set Mr. Matthews aside with no 
tags, because he had the brains and the vigor for his 
task, as a sort of pubHc interpreter of rehgious move- 
ments and rehgious necessities for all the Christian 
agencies of Great Britain. We are beginning to face 
now, and to feel deeply, our need of just such service 
as this here in our own land. 

(2) There is also our need of presenting the call for 
life for the Church at home and abroad. We have broken 
down pitifully over it; I think hardly anywhere did we 
miss our chance more pitifully in the war than here. I 
do not think there was a greater opportunity in our gener- 
ation than that opportunity — in the camps overseas, and 
in the S. A. T. C. here in America just when it was 
breaking up. We will never meet, most of us, I think, 
another psychological situation such as that which pre- 
vailed in our colleges and universities in two periods — 
the week we went into the war, and the week when the 
S. A. T. C. was being dissolved. I spent those periods 
in Yale and Princeton universities, and although I have 
been working in the colleges for thirty years, I never 
saw anything to surpass the responsiveness of mind, the 
tremulousness of spirit, the uncertainty, and the mani- 
fest eagerness for the light of the great call. And in 
part because we w^ere not prepared to speak to them 
with a voice that would have been compelling, that oppor- 
tunity slipped by, and we shall miss out of the ranks of 
Christian leadership in America and abroad for the next 
generation scores and scores of the best lives in this 
land, that we might have enrolled if we had been pre- 
pared to deal cooperatively, which was the only way in 



NEW COOPERATIVE POWER 221 

which the churches could effectively deal, with that great 
opportunity and obligation. 

(3) Here is our evangelistic opportunity that lies ahead 
of us. I believe one of the greatest days that the Church 
has ever known in America is to come when what Bishop 
Henderson and Dr. Goodall are working for is at last 
realized, and we can bring the whole evangelical force 
of the United States into operation simultaneously in one 
great evangelistic endeavor throughout the land. Timid 
men who have shrunk always from this work will be 
lifted into new courage. We shall have what we had 
in the war — the impulse, the power, the propulsion of 
the whole company moving together, the brave men carry- 
ing the weak and the hesitant along with them ; and there 
will be such a harvesting in that day as we have never 
known in the whole history of Christianity. 

(4) And there is also the task of bringing Christian 
principles to bear upon the national and the international 
life of the world today. It is ludicrous to think of any 
one denomination essaying that task, setting itself up as 
the medium of Christianity by which that task is to be 
done. It is a corporate task; it can only be essayed by 
great bodies of men who go at it corporately, as in the 
body of Christ against the great body of sin and death 
that there is in the world. I say, in the second place, 
that the pressure of the actual collective needs of the 
day that we are living in puts us in a position for cor- 
porate and cooperative action such as we have not known 
before. 

And, once more, we have the immeasurable asset of the 
acquaintanceship and the confidence and the affection of 



222 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

groups like this here in this room, of the far larger groups 
of whom we are representative, of the men and women 
in all the Christian communions of this land whom the 
movements of the last generation have taught to know 
one another, and to trust one another, and to love one 
another. 

We little realize how much we have got in this. In 
the old days the land was great, the people were scattered, 
and each little group was about its own business, and 
men did not feel the pressure of the great collective dan- 
gers and the common hopes as we feel it now; but 
here we are, and we know how many more we could add 
to this company, men and women who love one another 
with a love that many waters cannot quench, and that is 
stronger than death, and who mean to love this way even 
those who still keep them out or would keep them out 
of their fellowship. 

I like the lines of Edwin Markham, and I apply them 
modified often to a good man I know in a different com- 
munion who reprobates me; 

"He drew a circle that shut me out. 
Unsound, heretic, thing to flout! 
But Love and I had the wit to win. 
We drew a circle that took him in." 

We set out into a new day with this tremendous asset 
of confidence and love and common purpose. 

Now I know very well that today there are those who 
would qualify this enumeration of our assets. They say 
we came out of the war with a recrudescense of the de- 
nominational spirit and a stiffening of the denominational 



NEW COOPERATIVE POWER 223 

conscience, and there can be no question, I think, that 
we did. There are a great many who find in that fact 
a warning and an occasion of misgiving, and who fear 
that we are going to have trouble just because of this 
in the years that lie ahead. But I think their fear rests 
on a misleading and incorrect analysis of the situation. 

What have been the causes that have led to this 
strengthening of the denominational conviction and con- 
science? I think the moment you stop carefully to single 
them out, every one of them turns into a ground of fresh 
confidence and hope. The first of them was dissatisfac- 
tion with the undenominational expression of the Chris- 
tian religion, which it was proposed by some to offer in 
the name of the Church, and in lieu of the Church, to 
the men in the army and the navy. Now, there may 
have been a good deal that was inadequate in our con- 
ceptions of Christianity. For a long time many of us 
may have been willing to recognize some undenomina- 
tional expression of Christianity as sufficient, but we came 
to a sudden awakening in the war. It was realized then 
that no undenominational expression of Christianity con- 
serves the indispensable values. It does not conserve the 
church consciousness. I believe in the Holy Catholic 
Church, and great bodies of men and women throughout 
Christendom believe in the Holy Catholic Church, and 
they believe in it as something more than fortuitous as- 
semblies of voluntary individuals ; they believe in it as a 
continuing corporate reality into which we were baptized, 
that was before we came, that will be when we are gone. 
The Church awoke again to that priceless inheritance of 
the consciousness of the continuing Church Catholic, the 
value of its sacraments, the indispensable need of its doc- 



224 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

trinal bases. And in part this revival of denominational- 
ism which we are witnessing today is simply due to a 
clarifying of men's visions with regard to great spiritual 
values that must be kept and carried on, to be made the 
treasure of our common inheritance in the days to come. 

A second reason was the reaction from the inevitable 
waste and inefficiency of the war. The conduct of the 
war has been constantly pointed out to the Church as 
though it were a reproach to the Church — "See how 
masterfully and efficiently nations do these things when 
they put their hands to them." Every man who saw 
the war face to face gained exactly the opposite im- 
pression. War is always of necessity and in its nature 
wasteful and inefficient. I have two friends who are 
members of one of the best known banking houses in 
America. Both of them were in Paris during the war in 
important service for the nation. They came back, both 
of them having seen the inside as very few men saw it, 
and their dominant impressions were of the waste and in- 
efficiency of all efforts on that scale which have to neglect 
the absolutely indispensable element of time. 

Christian men reacted from all that. The Christian 
spirit of frugality, of honesty, of the homespun handling 
of trusts that cost blood — for that is what all money is ; 
just blood stamped into coin and printed on paper and 
sold in bonds — the Christian conscience reacted from all 
that colossal waste and inefficiency, and it reacted in the 
mood of decentralization, and of distrusting the collective 
world-wide scales of operation. Denominational revival 
has been in part simply the will of men to see that things 
are economically and carefully and democratically done. 

In the third place, there was a reaction and a deep fear 



NEW COOPERATIVE POWER 225 

against any super-leadership. , I know how many times 
in Christian assembhes General Foch has been held up 
before us, and a small board of allied strategy behind him. 
Rightly or wrongly the denominations want none of it. 
They do not have any too much confidence in boards of 
any kind. They know it was not General Foch; it was 
the great Force behind him, which, with or without him, 
would have achieved the result, and did achieve the result. 
Some believe that there are no men on earth capable of 
handling any bigger tasks than we have got, and that our 
only hope is to break the tasks up and get them allotted 
to little groups who will put conscience and ability equiv- 
alent to the tasks allotted to them into their doing. 

There is an old saying of a monk of the Twelfth 
Century that the day of the Son is passing, but that the 
day of the Spirit is coming. And like most statements, 
whether in politics or theology, it is right in its positive 
and wrong in its negative. The day of the Son is not 
passing, but the day of the Spirit is coming. He meant, 
I think, that the time when individual leaders were equal 
to the tasks of humanity was gone; but that there had 
to be a collective leadership, when the Spirit, diffused 
through men and women everywhere, would lead them 
by a common impulse to do what no individual ever would 
be equal to do in leading them as their one human leader. 
It was in part fear of the human super-leader that led 
to this denominational reaction! 

And I will tell you a fourth cause of it, and we need 
to take it home with us: It was the dread that institu- 
tions and agencies can become so big as to make them- 
selves super-moral. That was exactly what we fought 
against in the war. We saw a nation that at last became 



226 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

so great that it thought it stood above the moral law ; but 
that weakness was not confined to Germany. We, too, saw 
things done that the moral law did not sanction; and 
right here in the midst of us now, and all over the land 
there is the danger that movements may become so big, 
so self-confident, so autocratic, that they exempt them- 
selves from the operation of moral scruples and veracities 
that are meant to lie on all human life, individual and 
organized. 

And one other reason for this denominational revival, 
I think, has been the reaction from the pressure and the 
domination and the mob action of war times. Men want 
to breathe a spirit of freedom ; they want to move in lib- 
erty; they do not want to feel the shackles and the re- 
straints upon them. There is danger that they may react 
too far, but it is a wholesome thing when a church and 
great groups of churches do not want to feel upon them 
any bonds, except the bonds of Him whose slavery is 
perfect freedom. 

I think when one stops to analyze this undoubted de- 
nominational revival, he finds the secrets of it to be such 
as to make him rejoice; for what are they but the effort 
to conserve great and indispensable values that the whole 
body needs, which we are going to bring as our common 
treasure into that city of which the Lamb is the light, and 
to which men and nations bring nothing unclean, or un- 
wholesome, or false, but all their glory and their honor 
and their wealth. 

And so as we stand here at the first session of this 
Convention, looking out over these great problems that 
are confronting us, it is with hearts full of fresh confi- 
dence and of hope and of desire. And I would say in 



NEW COOPERATIVE POWER 227 

closing just two or three things that will be well for us 
to keep in mind as we go on, if we want to make sure 
that we take no backward steps, or that we throw in no 
unnecessary difficulties to our further progress. First 
of all, we have to remember that cooperation is going to 
cost a great deal more than staying apart. Everything 
that is worth while has its price, and cooperation is going 
to have a very high price. I ventured to say to our Pres- 
byterian General Assembly that if they were distressed 
with the Interchurch World Movement because it had 
unhappily and unwisely let them in for a very much 
larger sum of money than they had anticipated, just let 
them take it to their soul that money was a far cheaper 
price than they were going to have to pay for some of 
the other things they believed in. They believed in or- 
ganic church unity. Let anybody try to realize it, and 
he will recognize what costs he has to pay. Ten million 
dollars is a small thing in comparison with the price that 
church unity is going to cost. And if you and I really 
believe in cooperation we must be prepared to pay the 
price for it. 

And let me add, we haven't any right to talk secession, 
by the way. Again and again these last few years I have 
heard men say when we get together in these movements, 
*Well, now, if you don't do this, why, I don't feel that 
I can go on in it." This will not do. We have to believe 
in the principle of unity greatly enough to enable us to 
endure all these disagreements. We are in on this thing 
now, and no man of us has any right to say, when some- 
thing comes up that he has not prepared himself for or 
that he does not like, "I think I will have to draw out 
now." There is no drawing out of unity. I believe in 



228 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

the family of Christ as an indissoluble sacramental reality. 
And I think once we set out on this path in which our 
footprints have been planted now we are bound together 
in Christ forever, and we are to allow nothing whatsoever 
to separate us. 

In the second place, let us have done completely with 
discussing other people's motives, or the grounds of their 
action. Have done with that, absolutely ! We will have 
all we can do to keep our own clean, and pure, and 
straight. If we will just subject all our own to the ideal 
of the cross, we shall have no time left for scrutinizing 
those of other men. I took home the other day to myself 
the Christian application of what the Speaker of the 
British House of Commons said when some of the mem- 
bers were criticizing Poland and their fellow-members 
in the League of Nations; and it seemed very likely 
that they would begin to criticize some who ought to be 
in the League of Nations, but were not. When the 
debate was getting warm, it was settled with this decision : 

**The proposal which is made is that we are to discuss 
in this House the motives of members of the League. I 
must say that appalls me. I think we would be going 
entirely outside the functions of this House, and so far 
from leading to any friendly feeling between ourselves 
and the other signatories of the League, that there would 
be, it appears to me, very grave danger of raising a good 
deal of animosity. Leave Poland aside for one moment, 
and suppose we began to criticize the United States of 
America, which does not for the moment happen to be 
a member of the League of Nations, but which may well 
be some day. Is that likely to lead to any beneficial 
result? I cannot myself help but solemnly impose upon 



NEW COOPERATIVE POWER 229 

this House the view that the less we criticize or seek to 
interfere with the motives which govern the conduct of 
other states, the more likely are we to arrive at and re- 
main in friendly relations with them. For that reason, 
therefore, I would ask the House most solemnly to be 
very cautions, indeed, of how they take their stand upon 
this new development of our foreign relations. The 
honorable members of course, are fully entitled to say 
anything they please in regard to His Majesty's Govern- 
ment. But I cannot help thinking that a good deal of 
reticence should be exercised in regard to other countries, 
even if they happen to be signatories of the League." 

We shall make a great deal more rapid headway if we 
just trust every one of us his brother, and credit every 
one of us his brother with as high a motive as we would 
like to conceive that we ourselves are obeying. 

And, last of all, my friends, let us remember, and 
thank God, that this movement wasn't born with us, and 
it is not going to die with us. I have had a new under- 
standing the last few weeks of what the backgrounds are. 
There is a little committee of the Committee on the War 
and the Religious Outlook that is studying the whole sub- 
ject of cooperation and unity in the light of the war. 
It has no affiliations; it is absolutely independent; it is 
going to say what it believes, and some of the things it 
will say will have edges. It has been looking back over 
our history to the beginning, and some of the most com- 
petent scholars in America are doing that background 
work. The thing that amazed us all was how much there 
was in those generations at the beginning which we think 
we discovered or began today. Last night I took down 
and read over an old book that I got from my father's 



230 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

library. My father was no theologian. He was a lawyer 
who read theology as a side interest, but he had one set 
of shelves full of the best theological books of his time. 
This one was John M. Mason's book on "The Church 
of God." There isn't a voice speaking today braver, 
more prophetic than that voice of John M. Mason, sev- 
enty years ago, holding up before men's eyes the vision 
of one united Catholic Church of Jesus Christ 

It is not a new dream; it is a dream that comes 
down to us not across a hundred years alone. The most 
touching scene at the General Assembly in Philadelphia 
was when they wheeled old Dr. Roberts in his invalid 
chair upon the platform, for what I suppose was to be 
his last word to the Church that he loved with all his 
soul, and served with his full strength all his days. And 
his last word was just a word about the interest that 
always had been deepest in his soul — his interest in the 
unity of the Christian Church, and he closed with the 
words from the great prayer of our Lord, "That they all 
may be one," and then he repeated them, the old voice 
that used to ring in such trumpet tones over the Assem- 
bly now broken and dying away, "That they all may be 
one." And then once more in a voice that had fallen 
to a whisper, but a whisper that could be heard in the 
silence even of that great hall, "That they all may be one." 

But I tell you, my friends, it is no fading voice that 
is making that prayer ; it is the voice of one who made it 
first, quietly and simply in the midst of a little group 
of His friends, but who is making it today with clearer 
tones than ever before, and who will make it tomorrow 
in clearer tones still, till at last it is fulfilled, and He sees 
the desire of His soul and is satisfied. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE SPIRITUAL BASIS FOR THE UNITY OF 
THE CHURCHES 

By Rev. M. Ashby Jones, D.D. 

It is significant that Jesus left no model creed for the 
Church. It is equally significant that He did leave a 
model prayer. The significance is to be found in the 
fact that prayer after all is the essence of religious life. 
In its address it reveals the God of one's religion, and 
in its petition the dominant desire of one's heart. In 
my search for the spiritual unity of Christendom today, 
I find that all churches with their varying creeds, polities, 
and rituals, unite in this model prayer. In that prayer 
is expressed their faith in the same God, the God re- 
vealed by and in Jesus — the Father of Jesus. Here also 
they are making the same petition, Thy Kingdom come 
on the earth. 

I insist that wherever this is a sincere prayer it is the 
revelation of a spiritual seed concept which will inevitably 
produce a harvest of spiritual unity. Because if there 
were just one petitioner in all the world, he expresses in 
that prayer the conscious ideal of God as the Father of 
all men. He voices in that pregnant possessive pronoun 
''our" the ideal of an ever-widening consciousness, whose 
sympathy must one day include within its circumference 
all the children of men. It is out of this consciousness 
of kinship to God and men that his petition grows. Thy 
Kingdom come. So here is to be found a unity of pur- 
pose growing out of a oneness of consciousness. The 

231 



232 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

purpose of the Qiurch, then, is to bring forward the day 
when the will of the Father shall find expression in the 
wills of all His children on the earth. 

If this is true, then no matter how we may differ other- 
wise in defining the Qiurch, we must agree that the 
"Church" represents an instrument for the accomplish- 
ment of an ideal other than itself — that it is a means and 
not an end within itself. So it must not be the purpose 
of the Church to make itself r^nant in the wiUs of men, 
but its sole purpose must be to bring the wills of all men 
into submission to the Kingdom of Heaven. While we 
will discover many differences in definition and method, 
can it not be said that the essential purpose of all the 
Churches is the same, to bring the Kingdom of Heaven 
on earth? 

And now I am wondering how much of an agreement 
we could find as to the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven 
itself. I would not be dogmatic. Let me simply strive 
to make some helpful contribution by suggesting what 
seems to me to be some essential principles of the Qirist 
Kingdom. I need only remind you that this coming of 
the Kingdom was the constant theme of the preaching of 
Jesus. In His Kingdom ministry for the welfare of man 
is to be the highest and hohest service. Here Jesus seems 
to say that the supreme value in all the universe is a man, 
and the highest and holiest service that can be rendered is 
to help a man fulfil the divine purpose of his creation. 
Only as we keep this ideal steadily before us can we 
rightly coordinate all other values in the world. 

It is from this standpoint alone that we can under- 
stand Jesus' references to wealth. Seeking to express 
this supreme value of humanity, he strives first one way 



THE SPIRITUAL BASIS 233 

and then another to show that nothing else in the world 
is so important. Thus he raises the question, what shall 
a man give in exchange for his life? He does not con- 
demn wealth in itself, but only when wealth becomes the 
purchase price of a person. Then he throws down the 
gauntlet to the whole material universe in the challenge, 
"what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and 
lose his own life?" Just here I am convinced that the 
Church must make a reinterpretation of its mission in 
terms of this supreme value that Jesus places upon the 
worth of a man. It must learn to preach, unconscious 
of its own safety, the gospel that to gain the whole world 
will not compensate for the hurt or debasement of one 
personality. There is no reason why this gospel should 
be misunderstood, either as an impractical fanaticism, 
which condemns the acquisition of wealth, nor as a parti- 
san prejudice in favor of any class. But we should unite 
in a declaration so clear that he who runs may read, that 
our war is not against wealth itself, but only and always 
upon that form of wealth which is the purchase price of 
human opportunity and human happiness. All men must 
be made to understand that the Church stands not for 
the sacredness of property but first for the sacredness of 
a person, and that property has no value or rights save 
as it ministers to human welfare and human happiness. 

It is from this standpoint also, that Jesus talks about 
organised religion, with its ordinances and observances. 
When he is saying that the Sabbath was made for man, 
and not man for the Sabbath, he is saying that religion 
is made for man, and not man for religion. Only as 
religion with its sacred days, its creeds, or ordinances, 
contributes to the welfare of a man has it value. 



234 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

It seems to me that the supreme need of the hour is 
that the Church should lose its self-conscionsness — yes, 
even lose that consciousness of its own importance, which 
so often finds expression in an acute sensitiveness to its 
own dignity, order, and regularity. At whatever cost, 
the Church must make it clear to all men that as an 
institution it is not in the world to be served, but that it 
is here only for the service of human needs the world 
round. We must establish once again in terms of the 
teaching of Jesus the relative value of a church altar 
and the welfare of a man. No altar must stand between 
two men. If one is before the altar with ready sacrifice 
and remembers his failure of obligation to a brother, let 
him leave the altar and right the wrong. For the human 
heart is the altar on which we make our most acceptable 
sacrifices. Our sacred days and ordinances, must find 
their rightful place in the Christ scheme. They must 
be made to serve, and not to be served. They must be 
subordinated to the supreme task of human redemption, 
else we shall degenerate into the miserable business of 
the "tithe mint and anise and cummin" while we neglect 
justice, mercy, faith. 

I am profoundly convinced we need an added emphasis 
in our interpretation of Calvary. Jesus on a cross does 
indeed proclaim that man is lost. But we must not stop 
there. It proclaims that the loss of a man is in the sight 
of God the greatest loss in the universe, because he is 
the greatest value in the universe. So great is that value 
that the God-man was willing to die to redeem him. 

Now let us ask what is this value which Jesus sees in 
a man. Turn to his teaching concerning the Kingdom 
and you will find that it is a social value. It is always a 



THE SPIRITUAL BASIS 235 

value expressed in terms of a man's relations to other 
men. Even obligations to God are identified as obliga- 
tions to men. If you owe anything to God pay it to a 
man. If you fail to minister unto the needs of men, He 
counts it as a failure to serve Him. In a word, the 
character of a man is tested by the measure in which 
he fulfils his relations to his fellowmen. 

A study of this teaching of Jesus' shows it to be not 
only reasonable but inevitable. Try as you may, you 
will find it impossible to state the worth of a man in 
any other terms than those of his relations to other men. 
Indeed it is well-nigh impossible to speak of him at all 
save in terms which state or imply human relations. No 
definition of a man which does not at least imply the 
existence of another person has any significance what- 
ever. A man absolutely alone and unrelated to any 
other person in the universe, is unthinkable. He lives 
in our thought as father, son, neighbor, citizen, debtor, 
or creditor, and his personality grows as these relation- 
ships multiply. And according as he fulfils or fails to 
fulfil the obligations which accompany these relations, 
we rightly appraise his value. The distinction between 
private and social virtues is a fictitious one. In their last 
analysis, all virtues are social. They imply either the 
fulfilment or the desire to fulfil some duty to another. 
Obedience, justice, honesty, courtesy, kindness, love, 
would have no meaning save for the thought of more 
than one person. So every incomplete man is incomplete 
socially. He has failed properly to relate himself to 
other men. Every sin is a social sin ; the failure to meet 
an obligation to another. That lost man we are seeking 
is lost to society, to the family, to the community, to the 



236 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

State. So the mission of Jesus and the work of the 
Church are identical. The task, in its last analysis, is 
one of adjustment. The incomplete man is to be com- 
pleted by properly relating him to other men. He cannot 
live to himself, for that would mean that he must die 
to his real self. Indeed to the extent that he lives alone 
he fails in being a man. Alone he is but a prophecy 
which must be fulfilled in others. He must find himself 
in others. His destiny is social. He is predestined to be 
conformed unto the image of the Son of Man, who 
throbbed with the consciousness of universal brotherhood. 

Thus the ideal of the Kingdom becomes the task of 
the Church. To save men we are to save them in their 
relationship to one another. In some way we are to turn 
competitors in business, employers and em.ployes, rich 
and poor, Gentile and Jew, black and white, into brothers. 
Run the whole gamut of conflicting interests where men 
seek to hurt one another in pursuit of selfish impulses, 
and no plan of enlightened selfishness, and no form of 
political freedom, whether democracy or educated an- 
archy, can ever bring a Utopian peace out of war. There 
is but one keynote to harmonize the discords of the race — 
one hope for the redemption of broken relations ; that is 
the universal consciousness of kinship — the universal love 
of brotherhood. 

But how shall a man be brought into the right relation 
with his fellows? Jesus' first anxiety seemed ever to 
be to arouse a man to a consciousness of his own worth. 
No man ever had such faith in the possibility of human 
life, and no one ever strove so earnestly to elicit that 
same faith in men. The man must believe in himself. 
To prove the academic theory of the brotherhood of man, 



THE SPIRITUAL BASIS 237 

is not sufficient. The task is not to prove something, but 
to create something. To create the consciousness of who 
he is, and thus of what he may become. That was a 
tremendous figure of speech which Jesus used in his con- 
versation with Nicodemus that night. Before you can 
enter this ideal social state, this Kingdom of Heaven, 
"ye must be born anew." There is life before birth, but 
no conscious life. So there is brotherhood before there 
is consciousness of this relation. Think of a man who 
has all his life viewed other men as employes, hands, cus- 
tomers, or voters, and has dealt with them from this 
standpoint. Now through some experience, I care not 
what it is, they come to live in his consciousness as 
brothers. There is no other phrase which will express 
this experience, but that he has been born again. He is a 
new creation and has entered into a new world. For we 
m'ust emphasize it until it becomes an axiom of our rea- 
soning, that man lives where he thinks. He is what he 
thinks. His world is circled by the circumference of his 
consciousness. To him all that is without is as if it were 
not. Only that which is within is real. The problem 
then is not one of transportation, but of transformation. 
To carry a man from some East Side to a Fifth Avenue, 
or from an earth to a heaven beyond the stars is of little 
value. If you haven't changed the man within, you 
haven't changed the man. It is what is within, and not 
what is without that really counts. He is to be made 
conscious of his brotherhood. This and this alone is 
properly to relate him to the world of men. This is to 
enter the Kingdom, and to do this, in some way, he must 
get born again. 

Now I must hasten to ask this final question. How 



238 COMMUNITY PROGIL\MS FOR CHURCHES 

can that be done ? How has it ever been done ? Is it not 
of supreme significance that the one man in all the world 
who was most sure of His sonship to God, was most 
completely filled with the consciousness of His brother- 
hood to man. I raise the question in all reverence, could 
Jesus have ever played that splendid part of big brother 
to the human race unless He had come into this world 
throbbing with the consciousness that He was the Son 
of the God who was the Father of the race? In a word, 
consciousness of brotherhood is only born out of the 
consciousness of sonship. There can be no sense of kin- 
ship to man until there is a sense of kinship to God. 

Who am I ? is the most important question that I can 
ask myself. According to my definition of my own per- 
sonalit}' will depend my definition of your personality. 
Yes, not imtil I myself have learned to look upward with 
the prayer in my heart "Our Father" can I learn to look 
round about me in that ever-widening circle of s\*mpathy 
which shall include all men in my consciousness of hu- 
man kinship. 

And then comes the other question. How shall men 
come to know God as Father? And that question pro- 
vokes the other question, how have men in the past come 
to know God in this blessed relationship? They found 
it out from that same Jesus. He revealed it. He came 
into the world with the radiant light of love in His eyes, 
with a healing tenderness of touch, with the melody of a 
mother's lullaby in His voice, and lived His brotherhood 
into the lives of men. And then He looked up with the 
words "Our Father" and men read in the face of the Son 
the love of the Father. 

Now I have no procrustean program for you represen- 



THE SPIRITUAL BASIS 239 

tatives of the churches of Jesus, but I do bring you this 
principle. In some way, at any cost, the Church must live 
its sonship into the lives of men. The Church must in- 
carnate the sonship of God by personifying in its own 
life its brotherhood to the human race. All its programs, 
propaganda, orders and ordinances must yield to its su- 
preme purpose to express the love of a brother to even 
the least of all its brethren. With the picture of Europe 
traced in tears and blood by Dr. Brown but last night, 
contrasted with the picture of our own beloved America 
hardened into metallic lines by the material influences 
which are paralyzing our sympathies, the Church of Jesus 
Christ must cease discussing divisive differences of orders 
and ordinances and concentrate every effort of power into 
loving a world into brotherhood. We must convince a 
world of our sonship to God before we can convince men 
of their brotherhood to one another. For, 

*'He's true to God, who's true to man. Where'er a wrong 

is done 
To the humblest or the weakest, 'neath the all-beholding 

sun, 
That wrong is done to you and me, and he's a slave most 

base 
Whose sense of right is for himself and not the human 

race." 



APPENDIX 

List and Membership of the Convention 

Commissions 

The foregoing reports were prepared by nine Com- 
missions having a total membership of nearly two 
hundred. 

The Commissions were strongly urged to keep con- 
stantly in mind that the reports were to be of such a 
character as to be of immediate and permanent value to 
the committees undertaking various forms of interchurch 
work, giving particular attention to cities and towns. 
These reports are now printed as a textbook, taking the 
place of the "Manual of Interchurch Work" that has 
been of such great value. 

An all day meeting of members from the Commissions 
was held at the Pennsylvania Hotel, New York City, 
February 12, 1920. Each Chairman outlined the plan 
of his report, which was then carefully discussed, revised, 
and properly related to the other reports. An Executive 
Committee was appointed from each Commission. 

The following schedule of time for the preparation 
of the report was adopted: 

1. First rough draft to be ready by March 10th to be 
submitted to all members. 

2. Returned to the Executive Committee for editing 
by March 20th. 

3. Corrected copies to be sent to all members and 
special experts, if so desired, by April 15th. 

4. Returned by April 25th. 

240 



APPENDIX 241 

5. Final copy to be sent to Mr. Guild by May 5th. 

6. Preliminary copies to be printed and mailed to 
delegates May 20th. 

Each Commission was given twenty-five to forty min- 
utes at the Convention to accent the major items and 
principles of its report. This was followed by an hour 
of actual discussion by the delegates upon the salient 
features. The discussion was guided by a Business Com- 
mittee appointed in advance. After the discussion the 
reports were returned to the Executive Committees of 
the Commissions for final revision and then to the joint 
committee of chairmen and secretaries for approval and 
publication. 

COMMISSION I 

Principles and Methods of Organization of 
Interchurch Work 

DiFFENDORFER, Rev. Ralph E., Chairman New York City 

Director Home Survey of the Interchurch World 

Movement 
Zahniser, Rev. Charles R., Secretary Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Executive Secretary Pittsburgh Council of Churches 

of Christ 
Alexander, Rev. Will W Atlanta, Ga. 

Southwestern Regional Director of the Interchurch 

World Movement 
Bennett, Mrs. Fred S New York City 

President Women's Board of Home Missions 

Bitting, Rev. William C St. Louis, Mo. 

Pastor Second Baptist Church 

Brunner, Rev. Edmund de S New York City 

Director Rural Survey of the Interchurch World 
Movement 

Calhoun, C. K , . . , New York City 

The International Committee of Young Men's Chris- 
tian Associations. 



242 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

Day, Rev. William Horace Bridgeport, Conn. 

Pastor The United Church 

Francis, Rev. James A Los Angeles, Cal. 

Pastor First Baptist Church 

Garner, Rev. A. C Washington, D. C. 

Gleiss, Rev. H. C Detroit, Mich. 

Superintendent Detroit Baptist Union 

GooDCHiLD, Mrs. Frank M New York City 

Head, Miss Mabel New York City- 
Associate Department of Method, National Board, 
Young Women's Christian Association 

Henry, Judge F. A Cleveland, O. 

HoAG, Chester R Newark, N. J. 

President Newark Federation of Churches 

HoLMQuiST, Miss Louise New York City 

Executive Department of Method, National Board, 
Young Women's Christian Association 

PoLiNG, Daniel A New York City 

Associate President of the United Society of Chris- 
tian Endeavor 

Pontius, John Columbus, Ohio 

General Secretary Young Men's Christian Association 

Rice, Rev. Perry J Chicago, 111. 

Extension Secretary of the Disciples Church 

Root, Rev. E. Tallmadge Boston, Mass. 

Executive Secretary Massachusetts Federation of 
Churches 

Royster, William S Norfolk, Va. 

President Norfolk Federation of Churches 
Stoll, C. C Louisville, Ky. 

Taylor, Rev. Alva Columbia, Mo. 

Professor of Sociology in the Bible College of 
Missouri 

Tyler, Rev. Samuel Rochester, N. Y. 

Rector St. Luke's Church 

Weatherford, W, D Nashville, Tenn. 

Dean Southern Association College 

Wilmer, Rev. C. B Atlanta, Ga. 

Rector St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church 



APPENDIX 243 

COMMISSION II 

Survey, Program, and Comity 

WiSHART, Rev. W. L, Chairman Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Eighth United Presbyterian Church, President Pitts- 
burgh Council of the Churches of Christ 

Armstrong, Rev. Arthur H., Secretary St. Louis, Mo. 

Executive Secretary St. Louis Federation of Churches 

AiNSLiE, Rev. Peter Baltimore, Md. 

Christian Temple 

Anthony, Rev. Alfred Williams New York City 

General Secretary Home Missions Council 

Barnes, Mrs. Lemuel C New York City 

President Neighbors' League of America 
Blanchard, Rev. Ferdinand Q Cleveland, Ohio 

Euclid Avenue Congregational Church 

Burnham, Rev. F. W Cincinnati, Ohio 

President American Christian Missionary Society 

Boyd, Mrs. William S Philadelphia, Pa. 

President Federation of Woman's Boards of 
Foreign Missions 

Causey, James H Denver, Colo. 

Collier, President N. W St. Augustine, Fla. 

Florida Baptist Academy 

Davis, W. B Cleveland, Ohio 

W. B. Davis Company 

Flinn, Rev. Richard Orme Atlanta, Ga. 

North Avenue Presbyterian Church 

Freeman, Rev. James E Minneapolis, Minn. 

St. Mark's Episcopal Church 

Marsh, Rev. Daniel L Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Smithfield Street Methodist Episcopal Church 

Moore, Rev. Frank L New York City 

Secretary of Missions Congregational Home Mis- 
sionary Society 

Root, Rev. E. Tallm adge Boston, Mass. 

Executive Secretary Massachusetts State Federation 

Shattuck, Mrs. A. C Cincinnati, Ohio 

Shriver, Dr. W. P New York City 

Director of City and Immigrant Work, Presbyterian 
Board of Home Missions 



244 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

Thompson, Rev. Charles L New York City- 
President Home Missions Council 

VoGT, Rev. Paul L New York City 

Chairman Town and Country Committee of Home 
Missions Council 

COMMISSION III 

Evangelism 

Henderson, Bishop Theodore S., Chairman Detroit, Mich. 

Bishop Detroit Area M. E. Church 

Pearson, Rev. M. C, Secretary. . : Detroit, Mich. 

Executive Secretary Detroit Council of Churches 

Biederwolf, Rev. W. E Chicago, 111. 

Secretary The National Federated Evangelistic 
Committee 

Clinton, Bishop George W Charlotte, N. C. 

Dean, Rev. George B Philadelphia, Pa. 

Director Department of Evangelism Board of Home 
Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church 

Doughty, Rev. William E New York City 

Director of Department of Spiritual Resources of 
the Interchurch World Movement 

Fagley, Rev. F. L New York City 

Secretary of Commission on Evangelism of the 
Congregational Churches 

Fogg, James E St. Louis, Mo. 

Real Estate and Financial Agent 

Goddard, Rev. O. E Nashville, Tenn. 

Secretary Evangelistic Work, M. E. South 

GooDELL, Rev. Charles L New York City 

Executive Secretary Commission on Evangelism of 
Federal Council 

Latshaw, David New York City 

The International Committee of Young Men's Chris- 
tian Associations 

McGarrah, Rev. Albert F New York City 

Extension Secretary New Era Movement of the 
Presbyterian Church (U. S. A.) 

MooRE, Watson S Duluth, Minn. 



APPENDIX 245 

Rice, Miss Anna V New York City 

National Board Young Women's Christian Asso- 
ciation 

Stilwell, Rev. H. F Cleveland, Ohio 

Superintendent of Evangelism, The American Bap- 
tist Home Mission Society 

Taylor, Rev. Frederick E Indianapolis, Ind. 

First Baptist Church 
Todd, Rev. Luther E St. Louis, Mo. 

Secretary Board of Finance of the M. E. Church, 

South 

COMMISSION IV 

Social Service 

McDowell, Rev. John, Chairman New York City 

Secretary Presbyterian Board of Home Missions 

Tippy, Rev. Worth M., Secretary New York City 

Secretary of the Commission on Social Service of 
the Federal Council 

Batten, Rev. Samuel Zane Philadelphia, Pa. 

Executive Secretary Baptist Brotherhood 

Beck, Rev. Frank O Chicago, 111. 

Bennett, Miss Belle Richmond, Ky. 

Branson, E. C Chapel Hill, N. C. 

Brown, Rev. William Adams New York City 

Professor Systematic Theology, Union Theological 
Seminary 

Crouch, Rev. F. M New York City 

Executive Secretary Dept. of Industrial Relations of 
the Interchurch World Movement 

Devine, Dr. Edward T New York City 

Associate Editor of The Survey 

Douglas, Rev. H. P Montclair, N. J. 

Superintendent of Agricultural Labor Division, 
Interchurch World Movement 

Eagan, John J Atlanta, Ga. 

Farmer, Prof. W. B Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Western Theological Seminary 

Fisher, Bishop Fred B , . . Calcutta, India 

Bishop Methodist Episcopal Church 



246 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

Glenn, John M New York City 

Director Russell Sage Foundation 

Gregg, Frank M Cleveland, Ohio 

President Cleveland Macaroni Company 

Harlan, Dr. Rolvix New York City 

Secretary of Social Service and Rural Community 
Work 

Haynes, Dr. George E New York City 

Herrick, President Cheesman A Philadelphia, Pa. 

President Girard College 

Holt, Rev. A. E Boston, Mass. 

Secretary of the Social Service Commission of the 
National Council of Congregational Churches 

Jones, Rev. M. Ashby Atlanta, Ga. 

Ponce de Leon Avenue Baptist Church 

LocKHART, Rev. W. S Louisville, Ky. 

Executive Secretary Churchman's Federation of 
Louisville 

McCoy, Mrs. J. H Nashville, Tenn. 

McGaffin, Rev. Alexander Cleveland, Ohio 

Euclid Avenue Presbyterian Church 

Melish, Rev. J. H Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Rector Trinity Church 

Morrison, Frank Washington, D. C. 

Secretary American Federation of Labor 

Nixon, Rev. J. W Rochester, N. Y. 

Price, Rev. Orlo J Rochester, N. Y. 

Executive Secretary Rochester Federation of 
Churches 

Robins, Mrs. Raymond Chicago, 111. 

SiMMS, Miss Florence, E. C New York City 

Secretary for Industrial Work, National Board of 
Y. W. C. A. 

Strayer, Rev. Paul Moore , . . . Rochester, N. Y. 

Third Presbyterian Church 

Vance, Rev. Joseph A Detroit, Mich. 

First Presbyterian Church 

WiLSOii, Rev. Warren H New York City 

Director of Church and Country Life Work in the 
Presbyterian Board of Home Missions 



APPENDIX 247 

COMMISSION V 

Religious Education 

Meyer, Rev. Henry H., Chairman New York City 

Editor Sunday School Publications, Methodist 

Episcopal Church 
Webb, Rev. George T., Secretary New York City 

Secretary Sunday School Council of Evangelical 

Denominations 

Athearn, Prof. Walter S New York City 

Director of Religious Education and Social Service 
Boston University 

Atkins, President S. G Winston-Salem, N. C. 

Brown, Frank L New York City 

General Secretary World Sunday School Association 

Cope, Rev. Henry F Chicago, 111. 

General Secretary Religious Education Association 

Cutler, Miss Ethel ^ 

Director Bureau of Religious Education, National 
Board, Young Women's Christian Associations 

Elliott, Harrison S New York City 

Editorial Secretary, Association Press, Interna- 
tional Committee, Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciations 

Fales, Jr., Prof. David New Brunswick, N. J. 

Rutgers College 

Finley, Dr. John H Albany, N. Y. 

Commissioner of Education, State of New York 

Fisher, Dr. George J New York City 

Secretary Boy Scouts of America 

Gates, Rev. Herbert W Boston, Mass. 

Secretary Missionary Education of the Congrega- 
tional Education Society 

Glass, Rev. Gilbert Richmond, Va. 

General Secretary Church School Department Pres- 
byterian Church in the U. S. A. 

Guthrie, Rev. Charles E Chicago, 111. 

General Secretary of the Epworth League of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church 

Hall, Rev. William R Philadelphia, Pa. 

Presbyterian Board of Publications 



248 COMMUNITY PROGR.\MS FOR CHURCHES 

Hicks, Harry Wade Xew York Gty 

Executive Secretary N. Y. Stmday School Association 

HuBBELL, Rev. H. IL Buffalo, N. Y. 

Director Religious Elducation, Lafayette Presbj-terian 
Church 

Kent. Prof. Chari^s Foster-Woolsey New Haven, Conn- 
Professor of Biblical Literature in Yale University 

Knox, Psof. George Platt Chicago. IlL 

Educational Secretary of the International Sunday School 
Association 

MocMtE, Dr. L. B Washington, D. C 

Pearce, W. C Chicago, 111. 

Superintendent Adult Department International Sun- 
day School Association 

Shackford, Rev. Johx W Nashville, Tenn. 

Superintendent Teacher Training, General Sunday 
School Board Methodist Episcopal Church, South 

Smith. Rev. C. McLeod Buffalo, N. Y. 

Executive Secretarj* Buffalo Federation of Churches 

Wkigle, Prof. Luther A New Haven, Conn. 

Professor of Christian Nurture Yale School of Religion 

V.'isrrof SipvEY A. Boston, Mass. 

z.:i::r Z : ucational Publications, Congregational Educa- 

::::;:! Sc-cieiy 

V,;:::zz5rEZ. Rzv. B. S New York City 

A;::.; ^T:r_::i:y Commission on Christian Educa- 

tici: c; *_::c re'eral Council of Churches 

Wylie. Rzv. R. C North Side, Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Professor of Theology Allegheny Collie 

COMMISSION VI 

Missions 

TnsiiER, Mb. Fknkell P., Chairman New York City 

Secrrfary Conference of Foreign Mission Boards 

Fisher, Rev. Mh-es B., Secretary New York City 

Director Missionary Education Department Inter- 
church World Movement 

Ag<sey, Dr. J. E. K Salisbury, N. C 

Attfx -, Mrs. John S New York City 

Ez.\ucHAM?, Rev. W. B Nashville, Tenn. 



APPENDIX 249 

Barton, Rev. James L Boston, Mass. 

Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M. 

Burton, Rev. Charles E New York City- 
General Secretary Cong. Home Missionary Society 

Cory, Rev. A. E New York City 

Cronk, Mrs. E. C New York City 

Chairman Committee of Methods of Work, Federa- 
tion of Women's Foreign Mission Boards 

Eddy, Mrs. Katherine W New York City 

Hill, Rev. William A Boston, Mass. 

Lampe, Rev. W. E., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Manley, Mr, John E New York City 

International Committee of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association 

Maurer, Rev. Oscar E New Haven, Conn. 

Center Congregational Church 

McMillan, Rev. Homer Atlanta, Ga. 

General Secretary Board of Home Missions of the 
Presbyterian Church, U. S. 

Montgomery, Mrs. W. A Rochester, N. Y. 

President of the Women's American Baptist Foreign 
Missionary Society 

Moore, Rev. John W Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Marcy Avenue Baptist Church 

North, Rev. Frank Mason New York City 

Secretary Board of Foreign Missions M. E. Church 
(North), Pres. Federal Council of Churches of 
Christ in America 

Pinson, Rev. W. W Nashville, Tenn. 

General Secretary Board of Missions, M. E. Church 
South 

Rowland, Rev. Charles A Athens, Ga. 

Shell^ Rev. W. P New York City 

Smith, Rev. Egbert W., D.D Norfolk, Va. 

Speers, James M New York City 

President James McCutcheon Company 

SouTHGATE, T. S Norfolk, Va. 

Steele, Mrs. H. R Nashville, Tenn. 

Wood, Dr. John W New York City 



250 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 
COMMISSION VII 

International Justice and Goodwill 

Brown, Rev. Arthur J., Chairman New York City 

Secretary Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions 

Atkinson, Rev. Henry A., Secretary New York City 

General Secretary, Church Peace Union 

Allen, Mrs. John S New York City 

Corresponding Secretary Women's Board of Domes- 
tic Missions 

Andrews, Mrs. Fanny Fern Boston, Mass. 

Secretary American School Peace League 

Boole, Mrs. Ella A Brooklyn, N. Y. 

National Vice President at Large, Women's Chris- 
tian Temperance Union 

BoYNTON, Rev. Nehemiah Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Clinton Avenue Congregational Church 

Dillard, James H Charlotteville, Va. 

Faunce, President W. H. P Providence, R. I. 

Brown University 

GuLiCK, Rev. Sidney L New York City 

Executive Secretary Commission on Relations to the 
Orient of the Federal Council 

Hart, W. O New Orleans, La. 

Holt, Hamilton New York City 

Editor Independent-International Peace, Etc. 

Jones, Thomas Jesse Washington, D. C. 

Lawson, Rev. Albert G New York City 

Chairman, Administrative Committee Federal Council 

Lynch, Rev. Frederick New York City 

Editorial Secretary Church Peace Union 

Macfarland, Rev. Charles S New York City 

Secretary Federal Council of Churches 

Mathes, Mrs. George M Chicago, 111. 

President Women's Dept., Chicago Federation of 

Churches 
Mead, Mrs. Lucia Ames Brookline, Mass. 

Moton, Dr. R. R Tuskegee, Ala. 

President Tuskegee Institute 



APPENDIX 251 

Smith, Fred B New York City 

Johns-Manville Co. 

Wilson, Bishop Luther B New York City 

Resident Bishop New York Area 

COMMISSION VIII 

Publicity 

Barton, Bruce, Chairman New York City 

Barton, Durstine & Osborn Co. 

Smith, Cortland, Secretary New York City 

Joseph Richards Co. 

Best, Nolan R. New York City 

Editor The Continent 

Bridgman, Rev. H. A Boston, Mass. 

Editor, The Congregationalist and Advance 

Crane, Rev. Frank New York City 

Darrot, Mrs. Paul Gaston New York City 

Director Religious Publicity National Board 
Y. W. C A. 

Dennett, Tyler New York City 

Director of Publicity Interchurch World Movement 

Ekins, Rev. G. Herbert Bridgeport, Conn. 

Executive Secretary Bridgeport Federation of 
Churches 

Eleazer, Rev. R. B Nashville, Tenn. 

Fegert, a. G New York City 

Publicity Department Interchurch World Movement 

Fisher, Isaac Nashville, Tenn. 

Fisk University 

Hayne, Rev. C New York City 

Ass't. Sec'y. American Baptist Home Missionary 
Society 

Heaslip, Charles T New York City 

Heaslip & Getz Co. 

Jackson, Marion M Atlanta, Ga. 

Jones, Dr. R. E New Orleans, La. 

Southwestern Christian Advocate 

Leffingwell, Elmore C New York City 

Publicity Director Salvation Army 



252 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS FOR CHURCHES 

McCreary, Rev. L. W Baltimore, Md. 

Executive Secretary Baltimore Federation of 
Churches 

McClure, W. P Chicago, 111. 

Manager Publishing Department, Redpath Lyceum 
Bureau 

Moses, Rev. Jasper T New York City 

Publicity Secretary Federal Council of Churches 

NiLES, T. E New York City 

Centenary M. E. Church 

Paddock, Miss Estelle New York City 

Woman's Legislative League 

Patterson, Graham New York City 

Publisher The Christian Herald 

Smith, Rev. Paul New York City 

International Church Film Corporation 

Spillman, J. B Columbia, S. C. 

Stelzle, Rev. Charles New York City 

Advertising Specialist 

Williams, Talcott Westchester, Pa. 

Pulitzer School of Journalism, Columbia University 

Wooton, W. B New York City 

New Era Movement 



COMMISSION IX 

Securing and Training Executive Secretaries 

Willett, Rev. Herbert L., Chairman Chicago, 111. 

Dean Disciples Divinity School, President Chicago 
Federation of Churches 

Wright, Rev. E. R., Secretary Cleveland, Ohio 

ExecutivelSecretary Federated Churches of Cleveland 

Barbour, Rev. Clarence A Rochester, N. Y. 

President Rochester Theological Seminary 

Breckinridge, Miss Sophonisba Chicago, 111. 

Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy 

Brown, Prof. O. E Nashville, Tenn. 

Vanderbilt University 



APPENDIX 253 

Brown, Rev. Sterling N Washington, D. C. 

Howard University 

Covert, Rev. W. C Chicago, 111. 

Pastor First Presbyterian Church 

Cross, Rev. Edward M St. Paul, Minn. 

St. John's Episcopal Church 

GiLKEY, Rev. Charles Chicago, 111. 

Pastor Hyde Park Baptist Church 

Kern, Rev. Paul B Dallas, Texas 

Southern Methodist University 

Laidlaw, Rev. Walter New York Citj 

Executive Secretary New York Federation of 
Churches 

Mahon, Rev. Stephen K Toledo, Ohio 

Epwort'h M. E. Church 

Messer, L, W Chicago, 111. 

General Secretary Young Men's Christian Association 

McGiFFERT, President A. C New York City 

Union Theological Seminary 

Slattery, Miss Margaret Maiden, Mass. 

4 Park View Terrace 

Sweets, Rev. Henry H Louisville, Ky. 

White, Gaylord S New York City 

Union Theological Seminary 



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